Practice Improvement
Resources
AHRQ ECHO National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network
The AHRQ ECHO National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network—a partnership between AHRQ, the University of New Mexico's ECHO Institute and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)—provides free training and mentorship to nursing homes across the country to increase the implementation of evidence-based infection prevention and safety practices to protect residents and staff.
- Post-Vaccination Practices Series
- Best Practices Guide for COVID-19 Infection Control and Prevention in Nursing Homes (PDF, 1 MB)
- Best Practices for Promoting Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being Among Nursing Home Staff (PDF, 1 MB)
- Best Practices for Promoting Emotional Well-Being in Nursing Home Residents (PDF, 1 MB)
- COVID-19 Identification & Prevention Series
- Implementing a Staff Vaccination Program in Your Nursing Home (PDF, 315 KB)
- Respirator Fit Testing (PDF, 636 KB)
- Intramuscular Injections—Best Practices for Safe Vaccine Administration in Nursing Homes
- Vaccination Tracking and Reporting Tools
- Auditing Strategies to Improve Infection Prevention Processes in Nursing Homes
Patient Safety Network (PSNet)
PSNet is a compendium of resources on patient safety that highlights emerging strategies to respond to COVID-19, including increased use of telehealth, support of diagnostic safety, and measures to protect nursing home residents.
- AHRQ PSNet Annual Perspective: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Safety
- Technology Responses to COVID-19
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Diagnostic Error
- Healthcare Delivery and Pharmacists During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- COVID-19: Team and Human Factors to Improve Safety
- Telehealth and Patient Safety During the COVID-19 Response
- In Conversation With… Joel Willis, DO, PA, MA, MPhiL and Neal Sikka, MD
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Safety of Older Adults
ACTS COVID-19 Guidance-to-Action Collaborative
The purpose of this collaborative is to pilot efforts to improve the development, dissemination and use of "living" COVID-19 guidance and provide up-to-date answers for urgent clinical questions faced by front line healthcare providers and health setting leaders.
Telehealth Resources
Telehealth can allow healthcare professionals to host a range of safe patient encounters while facilitating management of acute and chronic conditions and preventive services. Telementoring, like Project ECHO, can bring scarce clinical expertise to rural or remote locations.
- Project ECHO
- The Evidence Base for Telehealth: Reassurance in the Face of Rapid Expansion During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Telehealth and Patient Safety During the COVID-19 Response
- In Conversation With... Joel Willis, DO, PA, MA, MPhiL and Neal Sikka, MD
- AHRQ's Easy-to-Understand Telehealth Consent Form
- Telehealth Impact Case Studies
- Albuquerque Police Department Uses AHRQ Resources for Crisis Intervention Team Training
- AHRQ Telehealth Project Helps Address Mental Health Needs Among Rural Elderly in New York State
- VA Provides Specialty Care in Local Offices Across the Country
- AHRQ Resources Help Maine Telehealth Network Improve Care in Remote Areas
EvidenceNOW
EvidenceNOW's Tools for Change has resources that can be useful to primary care practices adapting to new models of care during COVID-19, such as improving complex processes of care or increasing delivery of appropriate clinical preventive services.
COVID-19 and Behavioral Health
AHRQ's Academy for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care has a growing list of resources to help address COVID-19's impact on behavior health and primary care
Tools and Toolkits
Surge Toolkit and Facility Checklist
Reopening a closed ("shuttered") hospital to expand surge capacity during COVID-19 requires significant planning. This Toolkit is a step-by-step guide to assist staff responsible for management, legal, facility, staffing, security, materials management, and transportation planning.
Northeastern University Surge Capacity Bed Management Tools
This tool, created by AHRQ-supported researchers at Northeastern University, projects on a rolling basis and individual hospital's bed demand and occupancy. it is freely available to any health system worldwide and can be downloaded from the Northeastern University Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute.
Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Clinical Decision Support Implementation Toolkit
Helps clinicians and clinical informaticians in primary care and other ambulatory settings implement and adopt a clinical decision support alert for the management of community-acquired pneumonia that can be adapted for COVID-19.
TeamSTEPPS 2.0
Offers solutions to improve organizational collaboration and communication, skills essential to delivering quality healthcare and avoiding medical errors.
Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP)
CUSP can help clinical teams make care safer by combining improved teamwork, clinical best practices, and the science of safety. Clinical teams can employ the CUSP toolkit to build capacity to address healthcare safety issues.
- Toolkit To Improve Antibiotic Use in Long-Term Care
- Toolkit To Improve Antibiotic Use in Acute Care Hospitals
- Toolkit To Improve Safety for Mechanically Ventilated Patients
- Toolkit To Reduce CAUTI and Other HAIs in Long-Term Care Facilities
- Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers
Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) Toolkit
Helps hospitals reduce readmission rates by replicating the discharge process that resulted in 30 percent fewer hospital readmissions and emergency room visits.
