QIO Health Care Consulting Trends

• A recent trend in QIO health care consulting is antibiotic stewardship in nursing homes to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria by increasing awareness of the importance of proper antibiotic use and delivering technical assistance that builds the capacity of outpatient providers to monitor, reduce and prevent the misuse of antibiotics.
• Another recent trend in QIO health care consulting in nursing homes is to help to decrease the use of antipsychotic medications to treat dementia that is resulting in fewer long-stay nursing home residents who are receiving unnecessary antipsychotic medications.
• An emerging trend in QIO health care consulting is the increasing use of the Patient Activation Measure® (PAM®) tool in nursing homes and home health agencies that has a set of progressively difficult questions that indicate a person’s level of abilities, from understanding their responsibility to care for themselves to sticking to routines even in times of stress and duress.