Nursing Home Advanced Education Project

Project Overview

PROJECT TITLE: Indiana Nursing Home Advanced Education Project

PROJECT PURPOSE: To address a statewide shortage of healthcare workers in nursing homes with advanced training in long term care issues.

BRIEF PROJECT SUMMARY: This project is intended to develop and implement a program to improve the education of health care professionals working in long term care facilities. Formal academic programs generally do not include dedicated courses or even detailed content on long term care issues such as pressure ulcers, infection prevention, or Alzheimer’s. Formal academic programs certainly do not include process improvement content needed for healthcare quality improvement. The result is that most long term care professionals working in nursing homes do not have formal education in many long term care issues. This likely is a contributing factor to deficient practices.

In order to increase the number of nursing home staff with advanced education needed to support improvements in healthcare quality, the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) seeks to develop and implement an advanced education program on long term care specialties. The IDOH is planning to offer education programs in several advanced areas. These education programs will prepare the participant to be eligible to apply for certification (where certification is available). The following are education programs included in the project:

Wound care
Infection Prevention
Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care
Process Improvement

CMS requires state transparency related to state CMP expenditures. Information on each approved CMP Project is required to be posted online. This web site is intended to provide information about the Indiana Nursing Home Advanced Education Project.

Acronyms and Definitions

Acronyms

CMP: Civil Money Penalty
CMS: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
IDOH: Indiana Department of Health
QAPI: Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement

Contact

Indiana Department of Health Consumer Services & Health Care Regulation Program Performance & Development 2 North Meridian Street, 4 Selig Indianapolis, IN 46204	Director of Program Performance & Development Vacant 2 N. Meridian, 4 Selig Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 233-1325 [IDOH Main Switchboard]	(317) 233-7119 (317) 233-8761 [Administrative Assistant]

Contact for Project Coordinator

The IDOH contracts with an entity to serve as Project Coordinator. The following is contact information for the Project Coordinator:

University of Indianapolis
Center for Aging & Community
901 South Shelby Street
Indianapolis, IN 46203
www.uindy.edu/cac

Ellen Burton
Senior Project Director
burtones@uindy.edu
(317) 791-5940
(317) 791-5945 FAX

Project Proposal

Project Proposal: The Project Proposal is a document created by the IDOH and submitted to CMS to request approval of use of CMP funds. The proposal includes project goals and outcome measures.

CMS Project Approval: The CMS Project Approval Letter is a document created by CMS formally approving a project for use of CMP funds.

Project Timeline

Project start and end dates:

IDOH received CMS approval: November 4, 2013
Project start date: August 1, 2014
Project end date: July 31, 2016

Project Information

Project funding approved by CMS: $400,000

Project Resources

Project Questions and Answers: Link to frequently asked questions about the project.

Process Improvement / QAPI Resources

QAPI Elements Handout

Project Reports

Final Project Report: At the conclusion of the project, a Final Project Report will be posted. The Final Project Report will include information on project funding, duration of the project, contract recipients, purpose and goals of the project, project outcomes, and other information.

Project Resource Centers

Health Care Quality Resource Center Home Page. The Center provides access to agency Consumer Brochures, Education Modules, Health Care Quality Resources Centers, Health Care Facility Information Pages, and Program Advisory Letters.

Resource Centers: A Resource Center is often created for care issues related to quality improvement projects. Each Resource Center contains resources and information about educational programs. Resource Centers related to the Nursing Home Advanced Education Project are: