Carrie Finley (Host): Welcome to the Superior Health Cast, Quick Takes for Quality Care podcast. Here, we explore practical forward-thinking ways to improve healthcare quality with one quick, meaningful conversation at a time.

Now, before we dive in, this is our first episode in our podcast series titled Meet Your Partner in Quality Care Superior Health. And you'll be able to find this one and future episodes on the Superior Health Quality Alliance website, or your favorite podcast streaming platform.

I'm your host today, and my name is Carrie Finley. And I'm a registered nurse and a Quality improvement advisor with Superior Health Quality Alliance. I am excited to be here with two guests from Superior Health, who will be sharing their expertise.

Our first guest is Jenny Pritchett. Jenny is a health system leader and quality improvement advisor with 30 years of healthcare experience with deep expertise in clinical leadership, infection prevention, Lean Six Sigma in public health. She guides organizations through transformative quality initiatives. Jenny brings a powerful blend of nursing, operations, and consulting experience to every project.

And additionally, Jana Broughton is here today, and Jana is a quality improvement advisor with 32 years of experience in long-term skilled nursing care. With advanced degrees in leadership and social work and a specialized training certificate in healthcare AI, she's dedicated to strengthening nursing home quality and culture. Today, she supports facilities through her work at Superior Health.

So, thank you, Jana and Jenny, for joining us today. In this episode, our focus is to take a deep dive into the Superior Health Quality Alliance, like who we are, what we do, and why our work matters. So to start off this conversation, Jenny, I'd like for you to walk us through what the Superior Health Quality Alliance is and why it was formed.

Jenny Pritchett, BSN: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Carrie. Well, Superior Health Quality Alliance, we're a healthcare quality improvement organization, which you may have heard is at like a QIN or a QIO. And we work across multiple states, and we're located in the Great Lakes region. So, our goal is to improve healthcare quality, patient experiences, health equity and outcomes for our Medicare beneficiaries within our region.

So, the Great Lakes region includes six states. So, we are serving Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. What makes us very special is we are a joint venture of eight experienced organizations with deep backgrounds in Medicare quality improvement. So, that makes us very unique in the skillset that we provide to our providers.

Host: Wonderful. That leads me to my next question. Jana, Superior Health has been supporting healthcare providers for a long time. Could you share a little bit about the cumulative experience and the history behind the partnership?

Jana Broughton, BA: Absolutely. So as you know, or maybe you don't know, that the QIN-QIO program has adapted and morphed over since its existence over many years. Initially in 1982, it started with many standalones state quality improvement organizations. And then, CMS quickly realized that there was power in numbers. And as the scopes of work were introduced through the contract periods, they have introduced larger and larger organizational sizes and structures to the scope of their work, meaning that Superior Health came out of a recognition that the power of regional work is very important.

And so, when you think about, you know, initially in 1982 and the early 1980s, it was one facility, one organization in one state providing all the quality improvements for one state. They weren't really getting the experience and expertise and synergy that you get from having multiple flavors of providers, closely related in a regional geographic area, but you get that synergy of other ideas and thoughts. And I really think that's what brought Superior Health together.

When you look at the structure of our organization, we cover hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, and we have organizations that have high specialties in all of those areas so that we can bring that specialty experience and education and trainings from, you know, those organizations to Superior Health Quality Alliance, which really makes us a unique opportunity for providers to partner with.

Host: Yeah. So, building a little bit on that, I guess starting with Jenny, for listeners who may not be familiar, like what exactly is a QIN-QIO? And what role do these organizations play in improving healthcare quality?

Jenny Pritchett, BSN: Sure. So, a QIN-QIO stands for Quality Innovation Network and Quality Improvement Organizations. So, these organizations such as ourselves that's a Peer Health Quality Alliance are part of a national program created by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, otherwise known as CMS. And the goal is to improve quality of healthcare for people with Medicare. You may hear, you know, Medicare beneficiaries, at times, but it's primarily to make sure that we're meeting the goals and improving healthcare quality across our region.

Host: Well, thanks, Jenny, for that explanation. I'm wondering, starting with Jana, could You share a story or a personal experience that shows the value of quality improvement organization?

Jana Broughton, BA: Absolutely. You know, when I started out as a younger, youngish nursing home administrator back many years ago, I had the pleasure of working with my QIN-QIO, on a plan of correction. We received a directed plan of correction back in like 1998, I believe it was. It was a long time ago. And my first experience with the QIN is that they stepped in and provided not only resources, but true education and a partnership for me as a young administrator to be able to begin understanding what it meant to have sustained compliance related to CMS citations on a 2567. It was my absolutely first survey. It was my first exposure to the QIN-QIO program in Michigan where I was. And since that time, I've always had just a great respect for the QIN-QIO. And so, when I was given the opportunity a few years ago to join them, it was very exciting.

Host: Yeah. Jenny, any additional thoughts?

Jenny Pritchett, BSN: Absolutely. So, my experience stems more on the hospital and clinic side. And so, I have had experience with the QIN-QIO work for—gee, it's probably been over 15 years. But most recently, I was a chief nursing officer formerly, and I worked in a critical access hospital. And with the 12th scope of work with Superior Health Quality Alliance, I was able to experience that firsthand with what benefit that had to our hospital.

It also benefited our clinics as well, because primarily the readmissions was the biggest thing that we had an issue with. And Superior Health, with the last scope of work, which was from 2019 to 2024, did an excellent job of helping us. And that within the region of Superior Health alone, during that scope of work, readmissions four hospitals reduced by 21%. So, those numbers speak for itself. And now, I have the honor of working on this side and to be a part of Superior Health. So, I've been in their shoes. And it's been so beneficial and it's resources that are just such a value, and it's at no cost. So, you know, there's really nothing to lose.

Host: Wow, that is amazing. Thank you for sharing your personal experiences. I'd like to shift gears just a little bit and talk about some common healthcare challenges. Starting with Jana, given your expertise with skilled nursing facilities, what common healthcare challenges does the Superior Health Quality Alliance address through its initiatives?

Jana Broughton, BA: So really, Carrie, that's a great question because we get asked this quite a bit. Can you help me with X, Y, Z? And the answer more than likely is we probably can. Anything that is related to the scope of work that is outlined, in our work for this scope of work, it's on the CMS website. We will share it with you when you enroll. But really, we can do anything in from providing audit tools, education, and trainings for your staff, assistance with directed plan of correction. We can look at and provide, you know, additional training related to wounds and skin, falls, leadership support for young administrators to understand what the state operations manual tells you about X, Y, Z and really just being that support person that can adjunct what a facility administrator, DON, infection preventionist already may have within their organization. Our goal is to really just be that free resource and that time that you have a need so that we can save you the time and energy to focus at the bedside, focus on the resident that you're taking care of, and let us do the administrivia work of looking for that tool or that information, or that resource for you.

And I will share in the 12th scope of work that was really amplified as we worked with facilities during their COVID outbreaks and as they were working through the stress of major pandemic response, the last thing they want to be doing is looking for that most up-to-date CDC memo. Just send us an email, give us a call. We're going to be here, we're going to help you find those resources so that you can stay attuned and abreast of what's going on. So, that's really kind of what we do. You know, Jenny, you've seen so much change in this space. Any additional thoughts?

Jenny Pritchett, BSN: Yeah. And I can speak to the health system side, especially like the hospital and clinic settings. We're seeing a lot of, you know, like falls prevention, readmissions, workplace violence. And that is something new to the scope of work that's very important with workplace violence and keeping our staffing safe.

So, Superior Health can also assist with that in the scope of work. And of course, behavioral health, that's a nationwide issue that we can also assist with resources in that area as well. And the wonderful thing is the fact that we have subject matter experts in clinics, hospitals and nursing homes. There's a collaboration there. So, no matter what state you're in, or what region you're in, we can have all entities collaborate together and not work in silos, which is so important, that we're all in this together. So, we're excited to get to work on that with all of the settings.

Host: Yeah. Well, I heard no cost. And so since Superior Health Services are offered at no cost, starting with Jana, I know you've mentioned some of this, but could you share like what that support looks like from Superior Health? Like, what does it typically look like for healthcare facilities and clinicians?

Jana Broughton, BA: Absolutely. So along with one-to-one technical assistance, which is the formal term for having a QIA, such as myself or other's, be your partner in quality improvement so that you have that relationship with us. We also will be providing for the scope of work, small work groups known as affinity groups, where we work together on one common goal or theme. We will have a learning management system platform that'll be available to facilities to utilize free at no cost. It could be larger webinars, it could be printable resources, everything from falls prevention, which Jenny talked about, and that is something that we're working on in nursing homes as well to psychotropic drug reduction, developing a good plan of action.

So, our goal really is to meet the facility providers, you know, meet you where you're at, where your needs, what are your priority needs, and how can we help you move the needle from where you're currently at your baseline to a level of quality improvement. And I think that really is something that resonates with most leaders. I think most people go into leadership with the intention to do good and they want to do good, especially in healthcare where when you create quality environments for patients and for residents, it's a sense of pride that goes along with that in ownership. So, we really want to develop leaders to have that and give them the tools that they need to be able to get there with their teams.

Host: Wonderful. Any additional comments from Jenny?

Jenny Pritchett, BSN: No, other than, you know, Jana, that was a great explanation of what we do. And I think we're continuously looking at innovation. We have podcasts and improvement sprints and all sorts of other things. And we're always looking at new ways to reach out to our providers. So, who knows what's to come in the next five years.

Host: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Before we close, starting with Jenny, looking across your priority areas, where do you see the biggest opportunities right now to advance quality improvement in the healthcare settings that you serve?

Jenny Pritchett, BSN: I see the need for collaboration amongst the settings and the care transitions piece, you know, for our beneficiaries, for our patients. And I think the scope of work in Superior Health and the way our framework is carried out is so perfect in connecting all three settings. Whether it's a hospital clinic or the nursing home post-acute, we're bringing those settings together and working in a collaborative way.

So, I think that has been the challenge, especially over the past few years. And I think we're set up perfectly to promote collaboration and working together and tackling some of these healthcare challenges.

Host: Jana, final thoughts.

Jana Broughton, BA: So to add onto that, Jenny, I couldn't have said it more because I am hearing collaboration is the big word here. With that though, I would like to add one additional thing specific to the nursing facility settings. We have had, since the pandemic, a big shift in young and new leaders. And when I use the word young, I mean new to the profession and we've lost some significant institutional knowledge and understanding. So, we know that we're going to be spending some time building leaders resilience and building that repertoire of education and training and just building their bench strength for young directors of nursing administrators, infection preventionists. Staffing and long-term care is a challenge. Leadership staffing is an incredibly hard challenge, especially in some of our more rural areas across the six states. So, just really bringing some additional resources to these young folks—young gosh, I sound old now, but young, young leaders—and I mean that new to the profession—just to give them some resilience in what they're doing is something that I really feel we're going to be able to help with and I'm very excited about that because that leadership component and that staffing component is part of our work for this scope of work.

Host: Wonderful. Well, thank you, Jenny and Jana, for your time and insights. And thank you listeners for listening. This has been a very informative and just a wonderful conversation about all that Superior Health can offer for multiple care settings. Remember, you can find all episodes of the Superior Health Cast Quick Takes for Quality Care on our website, which is superiorhealthqa.org or you can subscribe on one of your favorite podcast platforms. And we love hearing from you. So, please send any of your comments, thoughts, questions or suggestions for superior episodes. You can reach out to us at info@superiorhealthqa.org, because your feedback helps shape the conversations that matter most. So, until next time, stay inspired and keeps striving for quality care.