Learning Collaborative

May 31, 2018

The Dish

The Dish provides a monthly update to participating sites enrolling in the MQii Learning Collaborative.

Spotlight: 2018 Off to a Great Start!

Our 2018 Learning Collaborative is off to a great start! To date we have more than 70 participating hospital and health systems ranging across 34 states.

As you are getting started on your 2018 quality initiative, make sure to review the Onboarding Checklist and begin by following these steps:

1. Attend a Welcome Webinar and the ongoing Coffee Breaks. Twice a month we hold Coffee Breaks that take place in combination with our Welcome Webinars. These webinars provide an opportunity for newly enrolled sites to become acquainted with the team and other participants, and receive a streamlined presentation of the onboarding process for getting started. 

Save the date! Our next Coffee Break and Welcome Webinar will be held on this Monday, June 4th, at 3pm ET. We will be holding the Welcome Webinar for the first 45-minutes, directly followed by a Coffee Break. If you have previously attended a Welcome Webinar, feel free to dial in solely for the Coffee Break.

2. Assemble a few champions for your project. Ideally, project champions are clinicians who are interested in malnutrition care and can help support this effort in your facility and engage others to help enhance malnutrition care. Project champions will help generate buy-in and support for the effort at the leadership level of your organization. You may find the MQii Learning Collaborative educational video on “Engaging Your Leadership” featuring Beverly Hernandez Ph.D., R.D. Director, Clinical Nutrition Services at Tampa General Hospital helpful for this. The slides for this presentation are attached to this email for easy access to the helpful links presented.

3. Put together your Project Team. Your project team should be comprised of few individuals who will help you run and manage your effort (e.g., assist with assessing your current workflow, identifying your project, training members of your care team). Watch our educational video on “Building Your Interdisciplinary Team” featuring Jill Johnston, Clinical Nutrition Manager at West Virginia University Hospital, for tips on assembling your project team. The slides for this presentation are also attached to this email. 

4. Begin performing your workflow mapping to assess how your facility currently delivers care and where there might be gaps. You can do this by talking to other clinicians involved in the delivery of malnutrition care to see what standard practice is and compare it to the best practices outlined in the Toolkit resources; pulling some initial data to see where there might be gaps in the care being delivered; or walking through the Care Assessment and Decision Tool to identify where your facility's activities could be better aligned with best practices.

MQii Learning Collaborative News

Publications & Presentations

Academy Health Annual Research Meeting | June 24-26, Seattle, WA

Academy Health’s 2018 Annual Research Meeting will be held June 24-26, 2018 in Seattle, WA. The MQii Team’s own Eleanor Fitall, MPH, Avalere will be presenting her poster “Advancing Quality Improvement Among Hospitalized Elderly: Lessons from the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative."

Using qualitative data gathered through a series of interviews with 2017 MQii Learning Collaborative participants, the poster evaluates some of the facilitators and barriers to Learning Collaborative sites’ implementation of a malnutrition quality improvement project and the collection of data to support calculation of the MQii quality measures. The poster highlights key aspects that made hospitals successful in their quality improvement projects and reflects on the role a culture of quality plays in advancing malnutrition quality of care.

If you are attending the Annual Research Meeting, we encourage you to stop by for Eleanor's presentation on Monday, June 25th from 8-9:15am ET. 

Intalere Elevate 2018 Conference

Kelly Danis, RD, LDN from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)–Presbyterian Shadyside presented this month on the MQii and UPMC’s experience as a member of the Learning Collaborative at the Intalere Elevate Conference. UPMC’s MQii project was highlighted as a “best practice.” Kelly described the background and goals of the MQii Learning Collaborative, discussed the benefits of the MQii toolkit, and explained how others can assess potential participation and quality topics for a facility. Congratulations Kelly!

REMINDER! We encourage all MQii Learning Collaborative participants to seek opportunities to present and publish on your quality improvement initiatives. We ask that you please share a copy of any materials you plan to make public or include the MQii logo on (e.g., news article, press release, editorial, poster presentation, manuscript, etc.) for brief review by the MQii Team at Avalere and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics prior to finalizing the materials. Please share materials with the MQii Team 30 days in advance of submission deadline, by sending them to [email protected] for this brief review.

What’s Around the Corner?

Upcoming Events

Expert Webinar Series Kickoff: The Burden and Impact of Malnutrition in the Hospital | June 6 at 11:30am ET

In June, we will kick-off the 2018 MQii Expert Webinar Series. These webinars are an exclusive participant benefit and are led by national experts on malnutrition best practices and quality improvement tips for you and your team. The first Expert Webinar will take place on June 6th, 2018 at 11AM ET and will discuss The Burden and Impact of Malnutrition in the Hospital. Following the webinar, participants will have the ability to: 

1. Share insights on the current science and evidence reflecting the prevalence and burden of malnutrition among hospitalized patients,
2. Use this evidence to engage hospital leadership and clinicians in supporting malnutrition quality improvement; and
3. Contribute to this body of evidence by disseminating the results of your own potential MQii project.

The webinar will feature experts Evelyn C. Granieri, MD, and Kelly A. Tappenden, Ph.D., R.D., FASPEN.

Dr. Granieri, MD, is Chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Aging at Columbia. Dr. Granieri’s interests are in medical and geriatrics education, programmatic development, advocacy and interdisciplinary care of frail and vulnerable older adults.

Dr. Kelly A. Tappenden, Ph.D., R.D., FASPEN, is a Human Nutrition Endowed Professor and University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Tappenden is also Editor-in-Chief of ASPEN’s Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (JPEN).

Please register for the webinar in advance here. We encourage you to send any questions you have for the speakers in advance of the webinar to [email protected]. We hope you can join us!

Save the Date

Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo 2018

Every year the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics organizes the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo for registered dietitian nutritionists and other food and nutrition experts. FNCE 2018 will be held in Washington, D.C. from October 20-23. Be sure to save the date! MQii efforts will be highlighted at various events and sessions throughout the conference. Please let us know if you are planning to attend FNCE 2018 so we can connect in-person and invite you to MQii-focused events.

Next Steps

• Register for the June 6^th Expert Webinar on the Burden and Impact of Malnutrition in the Hospital
• Be sure to check out our new Tools & Resources Page on the MQii website for easy access to stakeholder letter, project team and workflow maps, clinical flowchart templates, and more
• Listen to the educational videos and follow the recommended steps outlined above for getting your malnutrition quality improvement project off to a great start