• What Works: Best Practices & Innovative Idea Sharing

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the healthcare industry. The HQI team firmly believes that best practices, no matter how small, can improve care while making healthcare workers’ lives a little easier.

Following are some ideas we’ve collected from nursing homes across our region – consider adapting them to your situation or find inspiration to spark a new idea to solve an issue your team is facing.

Want to contribute to this list? Email questions@hqi.solutions to submit your best practices.

Personal Protective Equipment

  • Adopt a simple “mask up” phrase or jingle that staff can use to remind residents to wear masks when in common areas. Hold a contest or invite staff to create the phrase or jingle and allow residents to vote on their favorite.

Vaccination

  • Discuss the COVID-19 booster shot during resident care planning meetings when a family member is present so that everyone knows if the resident will be vaccinated.
  • Quarantined staff, such as nurse practitioners, may be able to remotely help promote vaccine clinic information to resident families.
  • Consider recruiting nursing students to assist with vaccine clinics.
  • Recruit volunteer residents to assist with on-site resident vaccine clinics. They can serve as champions and help put those being vaccinated at ease.
  • Guidance regarding giving the vaccine or booster to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 varies. Document which guidelines your facility is following in organizational policies and procedures.
  • On-site Facility Vaccine Clinic Checklist:

Considerations Safe space to set up – ideally a check-in area, waiting area with chairs six feet apart and a post-vaccination area but this could depend on if participants are ambulatory and space is available to divide the room into sections Someone to monitor residents for 15 minutes Recruit a few residents to be volunteer helpers with specific duties during the event Staff to track and document Rapid testing, if needed, to keep everyone safe Materials Thermometers EpiPen Timer or clock to track the 15-minute wait period Consent forms Fact sheets Personal protective equipment Hand sanitizer Sharps container Trash can Water and snacks for the 15-minute waiting area after the vaccine is given Photocopier to make copies of vaccination cards if the facility needs them for their records

Visitation

  • Print color-coded badges for visitors upon their entry to the facility and ensure that staff understands what each color means. For example, a visitor wearing a badge with orange in middle could signal to staff that the person is unvaccinated.