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The Dish provides a monthly update to participating sites enrolled in the MQii Learning Collaborative.
Happy Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) Day! The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics celebrates RDN Day on Wednesday, March 11. This annual day of recognition falls during National Nutrition Month to commemorate RDNs’ dedication to advocating for advancing the nutrition status of Americans and people around the world. RDN Day was created to increase awareness of RDNs as the indispensable providers of food and nutrition services. On behalf of the MQii Leadership team, we thank you for your commitment to improving the health of your patients, clients, and communities, and we hope you celebrate with your colleagues and/or local Academy affiliate group.
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SPOTLIGHT: OPPORTUNITIES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE ACADEMY’S MALNUTRITION INITIATIVES
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Connect with Other Leaders in Quality Improvement
The Quality Leader Alliance (QLA) is a group of leading nutrition and dietetics professionals who perform an exceptional level of quality management activities in their practice settings. The QLA is currently seeking members with experience in quality improvement to network with each other and to communicate and educate their fellow professionals on quality management concepts and resources. As members of MQii’s Learning Collaborative, you all have experience and expertise in this area to share with others in our profession. You can read more and apply on the Academy’s website. You can also view the Academy’s other tools related to healthcare quality on its Quality Strategies page.
Contribute to Pediatric Malnutrition Research
The Academy's Nutrition Research Network is recruiting pediatric inpatient facilities for a study to validate the malnutrition clinical characteristics, a set of criteria used to diagnose malnutrition in hospitalized adults and children. The study also will examine the amount and level of RDN care necessary to improve patient outcomes, overall and in the context of malnutrition. While not all of you work with pediatric populations, we encourage you to share this opportunity for your colleagues who focus in pediatrics. Validating these clinical characteristics will help to continue enhancing rates of screening, identification, and diagnosis and ultimately improve treatment and management of the condition. For more information, email [email protected].
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WHAT'S AROUND THE CORNER?
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Expert Webinar: “Applying MQii Learnings and Leadership to Improve the Landscape of Malnutrition Care” | Tuesday, March 17 at 11:00 AM ET
Join us on Tuesday, March 17 at 11:00 AM ET for the MQii Expert Webinar, “Applying MQii Learnings and Leadership to Improve the Landscape of Malnutrition Care.” During this live webinar, participants will learn about:
- Updates in healthcare policy and trends in care related to malnutrition and older adult nutrition;
- The role of MQii and Learning Collaborative members in impacting those changes through evidence generation; and
- Opportunities to use and report on malnutrition quality measures
The webinar will feature Bob Blancato, MPA, President, Matz, Blancato and Associates; National Coordinator, Elder Justice Coalition and Defeat Malnutrition Today and Executive Director, National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs; and Jeanne Blankenship, MS, RD, Vice President of Policy Initiatives and Advocacy, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Attendees will be eligible to receive a one-hour CPEU credit for their participation.
Please register for the webinar in advance here.
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Coffee Break: Using MQii Tools for Starting/Continuing QI Projects | Thursday, March 19 at 1:00 PM ET
Our member sites are at various stages in their quality improvement projects and we are pleased to offer tools and support that can help at any stage. This discussion will help sites understand what resources are available and how they can be used to begin new projects or continue improving care.
Please register for the Coffee Break in advance here.
For all of our expert webinars and Coffee Breaks, we encourage you to send any questions for the speakers in advance to [email protected].
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In case you missed it:
If you missed previous MQii Learning Collaborative expert webinars, you can access webinar recordings and slides on the MQii Member Portal. You will also find other member-only content, including the calendar of upcoming events, pre-recorded educational webinars, and archived Dish newsletters, on this site. As a reminder, the login information is: Username: MQii Password: MQiiLC2018!
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Consider opportunities to share your MQii project and findings!
The following table outlines several meetings and conferences that may be of interest to Learning Collaborative members in the coming months. We encourage you to look at the event websites, review submission criteria, and consider sharing your research with these various audiences. Please reach out with any questions or for assistance in pulling these together.
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LEARNING COLLABORATIVE PARTICIPANT UPDATES
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Reminder to Sign Your Participant Agreement
This is a reminder to please sign your letter to participate in the 2020 MQii Learning Collaborative as soon as possible.
- Non-data-sharing sites: please sign your letter of intent
- Data-sharing sites: please sign an addendum to your previous agreement
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about engagement with the MQii as well as any changes in leadership in your nutrition care team. We look forward to working with you in the upcoming year!
Reminder to Contribute to QCDRs
Call to Action: Support the Inclusion of Quality Measures in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)
The Academy officially announced our partnerships with the Premier Clinician Performance Registry and the U.S. Wound Registry to include malnutrition-focused quality measures in their respective Qualified Clinical Data Registries (QCDR). These are the first quality measures related to care of patients at risk of malnutrition or with malnutrition that involve data on documentation and/or interventions from RDNs. We are requesting your help to partner with us to fulfill the minimum reporting requirements necessary to continue to approve those measures for reporting by MIPS-participating clinicians. For more information, listen to the QCDR Microlearning Overview, review the QCDR Frequently Asked Questions, and continue monitoring the QCDR page on the Academy’s website for more information on enrollment and data submission in the coming weeks. Please contact Angel Valladares if you are interested in supporting this effort to make sure identification and treatment of malnutrition risk and malnutrition are included as part of the MIPS moving forward.
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MALNUTRITION IN THE NEWS
Transitions of Care Article Highlighting MQii Efforts in Health Affairs Blog
In late January, members from the MQii Leadership Team published “From Hospital to Home: Why Nutrition Counts” in Health Affairs Blog. The article highlights the value of nutrition care and outlines five major changes that can be implemented to improve patient outcomes for those at nutritional risk after hospital discharge. Included in this article are findings from interviews we held with many of you in 2018 related to your sites’ barriers to quality care during care transitions and innovative solutions. Thank you again for your time and insights! Please keep us informed of any publications or presentations that you and your colleagues share about your malnutrition initiatives.
Importance of Nutrition Support
Also in late January, members of MQii and our leadership team collaborated with ASPEN’s Value Project to publish “Value of Nutrition Support Therapy: Impact on Clinical and Economic Outcomes in the United States” in the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. The study reviewed publications involving nutrition support interventions for 13 disease or therapeutic areas and modeled the potential cost savings in Medicare that could be realized through these nutrition support interventions. While the analysis did not include data from Learning Collaborative sites, it drew upon MQii’s collective analyses and thought leadership to contribute to this growing body of literature.
Legacy Salmon Creek Featured for Patient Discharge Program
MQii Learning Collaborative member Legacy Salmon Creek was recently featured by Food Management for its successful patient discharge program. Led by clinical nutrition supervisor Gerry Howick with a team of RDs and executive chef, this program provides home-delivered meals and subsequent nutrition assessments to discharged patients at risk of malnutrition in an effort to prevent their readmission. For more information about this innovative program, see the full article in September’s JAND Supplement on MQii programs at participating hospitals.
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LEARNING COLLABORATIVE PARTICIPANT RESOURCES
NFPE “Tip of the Month”
A recent small-scale study showed that “the nutrition focused physical exam (NFPE) was successful in identifying malnutrition in a sample of elderly subjects as confirmed by the low nutrient intake levels reported.” The NFPE findings indicated subcutaneous fat loss and muscle loss in multiple regions and that 93% of the 30 elderly subjects had some form of malnutrition. While ongoing research is needed in the older population (65 years and older), this study highlights the importance of performing an NFPE to identify malnutrition. This research was presented as a poster presentation at the Academy’s Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) with the abstract in JAND.
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NEXT STEPS
- Attend the upcoming March Coffee Break if you have questions regarding your malnutrition quality improvement efforts or want to discuss new or continuing malnutrition initiatives
- Share your progress or reach out with any questions to your MQii Point of Contact. Please also let us know about any transitions in leadership, requested topics for future events, or additional events of interest to share with other members
- Please sign and return your letter of intent/addendum to participate in the Learning Collaborative as soon as possible
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