RHODE ISLAND NURSING HOMES AMONG LEADERS IN NATIONAL EFFORT TO IMPROVE QUALITY
RI is One of Four States to Achieve 100% Participation in Campaign to Make Nursing Homes Better Places to Live, Work and Visit WARWICK, RI – Every one of the 86 Medicaid certified nursing homes in Rhode Island has made a significant commitment to improve quality of care by participating in a national campaign dedicated to making nursing homes better places to live, work and visit. Rhode Island became one of only four states – in addition to South Dakota, Arkansas and Georgia – where every nursing home participates in the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign. In a typical year, nearly 9000 Rhode Island residents spend some time in a nursing home.
Advancing Excellence is the largest voluntary group of its kind working in every state to help nursing homes improve the quality of care for residents and work environment for staff. Nursing homes that have participated in this initiative have made faster progress at improving in key goal areas such as reducing rates of pressure ulcers, improving management of pain, and significantly reducing use of physical restraints. Participating homes are also working to improve in areas such as staff retention and resident and family satisfaction.
In addition to 28 participating national organizations representing nursing homes, others including health care professionals and direct care workers, quality improvement experts, consumers and government agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Veterans Administration, and an established infrastructure of Local Area Networks for Excellence (LANEs), provide support and information for the Advancing Excellence campaign at the state level. In a recent letter to Governor Donald Carcieri, Advancing Excellence Campaign Chair, Mary Jane Koren, M.D., M.P.H., and Vice Chair, Chris Condeelis, praised Rhode Island nursing homes, stating, “Rhode Island’s achievement in getting every nursing home in the state to enroll in the Campaign is due to the vision, determination and sustained effort of your long-term care leaders.”
Nursing homes, consumers and staff that join Advancing Excellence receive free regular updates related to quality improvement such as fact sheets and tip sheets.
“When you walk into a nursing home to visit your family member and the same staff greets you, they know your name, your family member is comfortable and enjoying all that the nursing home has to offer, you are seeing the goals of the campaign in action,” said Nelia Silva Odom, RN, BSN, MBA, MHA, Senior Program Coordinator, Quality Partners of Rhode Island/Rhode Island Generations Coalition Member and Local Area Network of Excellence (LANE) convener.
Rhode Island Nursing Homes among Leaders in National Effort to Improve Quality
100% of State’s Nursing Homes Participate in Campaign to Make Nursing Homes Better Places to Live, Work and Visit
PROVIDENCE, RI – Every one of the 86 Medicaid certified nursing homes in Rhode Island has made a significant commitment to improve quality of care by participating in a national campaign dedicated to making nursing homes better places to live, work and visit. Rhode Island became one of only four states – in addition to South Dakota, Arkansas and Georgia – to achieve 100 percent participation in the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign.
Advancing Excellence is the largest voluntary group of its kind working in every state to help nursing homes improve the quality of care for residents and work environment for staff. Nursing homes that have participated in this initiative have made faster progress at improving in key goal areas such as reducing rates of pressure ulcers, improving management of pain, and significantly reducing use of physical restraints. Participating homes are also working to improve in areas such as staff retention and resident and family satisfaction.
“When you walk into a nursing home to visit your family member and the same staff greets you, they know your name, your family member is comfortable and enjoying all that the nursing home has to offer, you are seeing the goals of the campaign in action,” said Nelia Silva Odom, RN, BSN, MBA, MHA, Senior Program Coordinator, Quality Partners of Rhode Island/Rhode Island Generations Coalition Member and Local Area Network of Excellence (LANE) convener.
“Efforts to achieve total patient and family satisfaction are embedded in our mission, our goals and our daily tasks,” said RIAFSA Director James Nyberg, speaking on behalf of the 12 non-profit nursing homes that his organization represents. “We embrace this formal, concerted effort to improve the lives of our residents.”
In addition to the 28 participating national organizations representing nursing homes, health care professionals and direct care workers, quality improvement experts, consumers and government agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Veterans Administration an established, infrastructure of Local Area Networks for Excellence (LANEs) provides support and information at the state level .
SKILLED NURSING FACILITY EARNS PERFECT SCORE
Bristol, RI, – Silver Creek Manor, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility located in Bristol, Rhode Island earned a perfect survey by the Rhode Island Department of Health this month. Skilled nursing facilities undergo unannounced surveys every nine to 15 months evaluating more than 150 standards of care set by the federal government such as adequacy of staffing, quality of care, and cleanliness. Only 12 out of every 100 facilities earn a perfect score.
Silver Creek Manor, owned and operated by the Romano family since 1970, provides skilled nursing, rehabilitation, complex wound care and respite care to 128 residents. Silver Creek was one of only ten Rhode Island nursing facilities to earn a coveted 2009 American Health Care Association Bronze Quality Award, a national award based on the core values and criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program.
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA TO HOLD INAUGURAL FUNDRAISING SWIM IN RHODE ISLAND
Open Water Swim to Raise Money for Women & Infants Hospital
Providence, R.I. — Swim Across America (SAA) – the national non-profit organization dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment through swimming-related events – will hold its first open water swim in Rhode Island on Saturday, September 11 at 9 AM.
Swimming enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels are invited to join national and local Olympic swimmers at the event, being held at Roger Wheeler State Beach. The 1/2 – or 1-mile swim in Narragansett Bay will raise money for Women & Infants’ Program in Women’s Oncology through pledges collected by swimmers, online donations and sponsorships. The event is open to individual swimmers or teams. Swimmers pledge to raise $300 in donations each to enter.
“We are thrilled to partner with Swim Across America on this innovative fundraising event,” said Karen A. Davie, senior vice president philanthropy and governance at Women & Infants. “We all know someone with cancer, and this enables individual swimmers and teams to participate in honor or memory of a loved one with cancer. In the long run, they will be helping many more women diagnosed with this disease through the Program in Women’s Oncology, the largest oncology service dedicated to women in the Northeast.”
“It is certainly a personal challenge to get into the ocean and participate in this event,” added Roger Begin, chairman of the Women & Infants Development Foundation. “But that is really nothing compared to the challenge cancer patients face each day they are in treatment. Knowing that should inspire people to sign up and help.”
Swim Across America Inc. is a non-profit organization established more than 20 years ago with the mission of raising money for cancer research, prevention and treatment. To date, more than $30 million has been raised through swims held throughout the country, including Boston, Baltimore, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. The organization chose Rhode Island for one of its 2010 inaugural events.
After swimmers jump in and complete the swim, they will be welcomed back to the shore by cheering family and friends. The event ends with a closing ceremony with an inspirational guest speaker and an awards ceremony in which Swim Across America will honor some of the top fundraisers and teams.
“Swim Across America is incredibly excited to be coming to Rhode Island this year,” said Janel Jorgensen, a 1988 Olympic silver medalist and the organization’s national executive director. “Rhode Island athletes are a strong community and our greatest hope is that through our swim, we can inspire people to act and join our Swim Across America community. This event brings us one step closer to finding a cure for cancer and that is what motivates us.”
WOMEN & INFANTS’ RESEARCHER PUBLISHES RESULTS OF OVARIAN CANCER STUDY IN AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY
Data supports use of combination test developed at Women & Infants in early ovarian cancer detection
A research team led by Richard G. Moore, MD, director of the Center for Biomarkers and Emerging Technologies at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, reports that the novel combination of two blood tests is more effective at determining whether an ovarian mass is cancerous than the current standard of care.
Dr. Moore and his team published the study – entitled “Comparison of a novel multiple marker assay vs. the Risk of Malignancy Index for the prediction of epithelial ovarian cancer in patients with a pelvic mass” – in an upcoming issue (in press) of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The publication is a continuation of Dr. Moore’s quest to establish a simple way to predict cancer in patients with an ovarian mass or cyst in order to better triage women with ovarian cancers to specialists and centers experienced in the care of women with ovarian cancer.
“We know that women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer have better outcomes and increased survival when treated by surgeons trained in the management of ovarian cancer and at institutions specializing in the care of women with this disease. The trick has been knowing who is most likely to need such immediate specialty care,” Dr. Moore explains. “This enables us to predict which pelvic masses are cancerous and facilitate referral of those patients to the specialists. Patients with benign tumors can be treated by their own gynecologists.”
In this latest study, Dr. Moore examined the use of a multiple marker evaluation tool called the Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) to predict ovarian cancer in women with a pelvic mass or ovarian cyst. In all, 457 women were examined, using ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ROMA, which compares blood levels of two proteins, HE4 and CA125.
The results showed that using ROMA with the blood test results achieved a sensitivity of 94.3% for the detection of ovarian cancer, while the use of CA125 with imaging predicted ovarian cancer in just 84.6% of the women.
“This is an important step in identifying women at high risk for ovarian cancer and triaging these patients to centers of excellence for their care,” said Dr. Moore, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
This publication is the latest in a series of studies generated by Dr. Moore and colleagues. In 2007, Dr. Moore discovered that combining blood tests for HE4 and CA125 could predict whether an ovarian mass is cancerous. Months later, he released the results of a study supporting the test’s effectiveness in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.
In the study leading up to the current publication, Dr. Moore and his colleagues conducted a multicenter validation trial involving 566 women with a pelvic mass or ovarian cyst who were scheduled for surgery. ROMA, employing the biomarkers HE4 and CA125, successfully stratified the patients into low- and high-risk groups, with 94% of invasive epithelial ovarian cancers being correctly stratified into the high-risk group.
