Pioneer Network Announces More Webinars

The Pioneer Network webinar series three on Individualizing Care is underway. It is a blueprint for reducing the use of anti-psychotic medications using QI principles and Individualized Care Practices. CMS has announced an initiative to reduce use of anti-psychotic medications by 15% by December 31, 2012. Individualizing care is the best "non-pharmacologic intervention" to prevent "environmentally-induced" agitation.

In this webinar series, nursing home teams describe how to operationalize quality of life, and how to use performance improvement processes to do so. Next year, CMS will roll out QAPI - Quality Assurance Performance Improvement, with the expectation that nursing homes engage in performance improvement projects. Hear how colleagues are using these projects to improve the quality of life and care for their residents.

Series Three: Individualizing Care: A Performance Improvement Approach to Reducing Anti-Psychotic Medications

PART EIGHT: Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET - MDS and QAPI: A High Involvement Approach

New Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) requirements being developed by CMS will foster high engagement of staff closest to the resident in performance improvement activities. Learn from the QAPI national demonstration project leads about the new QAPI requirements being developed by CMS and tested at 17 nursing homes in four states. Hear an MDS coordinator talk about the interplay between MDS and QAPI and hear from nursing home teams how they used performance improvement projects (PIP) to foster staff engagement in individualizing care.

PART NINE: Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET - Individualizing Care and Environments: Non-pharmacologic Interventions Instead of Anti-Psychotic Medications

Just say no to anti-psychotic medications! The evidence is that they rarely have a benefit for people with dementia and they often cause serious harm because of their sedative affect and how they mask the needs being expressed by residents through their behavioral communication. Learn how to use everyday assessment and care planning within care teams to learn about residents' routines, understand what they are communicating when they express distress, and reduce their distress rather than mask it with medications. Hear from a nursing home team how, as they came to know residents' customary routines, they were able to eliminate medications by eliminating their environmentally-induced distress.

Learn more ~ or join the conversation!

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