FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Emilie Fennell
Director, Communications and External Relations
512-334-1649
Emilie.Fennell@tmf.org
1-800-725-9216
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 11, 2023—TMF Health Quality Institute, a leading nonprofit health care consulting company and Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization, highlights the efforts of Good Shepherd Lutheran (GSL) Home in Nebraska in a recently published success story.
In August 2022, GSL had a sudden COVID-19 outbreak in which 21 of 54 residents, or 38%, and 19 staff members, or 20%, tested positive.
“We had been doing so well at keeping our residents safe from COVID-19. We needed to determine what went wrong,” said GSL Infection Preventionist Mary Powell, MBA, MSN, RN.
Prior to August, GSL had effectively prevented massive COVID-19 outbreaks in its resident population, with zero residents testing positive in 2020, seven testing positive in 2021 and four testing positive in 2022 through July. The GSL leadership team proactively responded at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 by providing education and hands-on training to staff related to infection control practices.
“Our TMF quality improvement specialist provided our facility with the 5 Whys Tool (PDF). We used this to help us drill down and determine the root cause of our August outbreak,” Powell said.
With a focused response, re-emphasis on key education and implementing critical tactics, GSL achieved a 100% COVID-19 resident vaccination rate by November 2022.
For the full story on GSL’s achievements, read Education Is Key to Resident Safety During COVID-19 (tmfnetworks.org).
About TMF Health Quality Institute
TMF Health Quality Institute focuses on improving lives by improving the quality of health care through contracts with federal, state and local governments, as well as private organizations. For 50 years, TMF has helped health care providers and practitioners in a variety of settings improve care for their patients.