ESRD NETWORK 6 2011 ANNUAL REPORT

A collaborative project is a systematic approach to healthcare quality improvement in whichteams of healthcare providers test and measure practice innovations. They share theirexperiences in an effort to accelerate learning and widespread implementation of best practices.The Southeastern Kidney Council collaborated with the following groups in 2011:Dialysis and Transplant FacilitiesNetwork 6 utilized Vascular Access collaboration with the community of Athens, GA to includeFMC, DaVita and non-LDOs to focus on vascular access barriers. Forty-three (43) Nurses,PCTs, Regional Administrators, and other facility staff attended the workshops from 12 areafacilities.Network 6 presented, “Increasing AVFs in Network 6”, a vascular access training for IntensiveIntervention facilities in Raleigh, NC. Forty-five (45) participants attended including LDO RVPs,DVPs and their colleagues, Network 6 staff, Consumer and Medical Review Board members.Network 6 presented Cannulation training at the request of FMC in Georgia. It included 49attendees from 13 different GA Medicare Provider Numbers, Acute Dialysis Center, andCorporate reps and 30 Nurses, 16 Patient Care Technicians, and 3 Corporate Representatives.Forty-two (42) participants completed the evaluation. The majority (95%) of participants statedthat the difficulty level of the meeting content was appropriate and 78% of participants rated theworkshop content as excellent, and the remaining 22% rated it as satisfactory. Data from preandpost-evaluation surveys suggested that participants increased their knowledge aboutvascular access. Participants improved their knowledge in all topic areas, including how toassess vascular access, how to identify a maturing AVF, when to evaluate a fistula for nonmaturation,and who should be involved in-patient care.Network 6, the Chief Medical Officers, Regional Vice Presidents and Divisional Vice Presidentsof the Large Dialysis Organizations within our region formed a unique collaboration in 2011.Network 6 hosted “Increasing AVFs through Focus on Incident Patients and Using Existing AVFistulas” and each RVP/DVP participated in a face-to-face meeting in Atlanta, Georgia onNovember 10, 2011. Each region presented a PowerPoint Presentation on successes andbarriers.The use of WebEx as a mode of communication and teaching resource was effective.Comments from participants about the medium included “WebEx is excellent medium to reachthe most people while managing costs and very effective - easy to log into.”The Southeastern Kidney Council recognizes that the dialysis and transplant facilities in thearea are key partners to improving care and need to be engaged in the process. To remindfacilities of this expectation and to document this relationship, every facility signs an annualQuality of Care Commitment statement, which explains their role in achieving Network and CMSgoals.P a g e | 77