Using the AE Tools to Improve Consistent Assignment

Consistent Assignment

What is Consistent Assignment? The same person takes care of the same resident every time he or she is on duty…

Consistent Assignment Builds positive relationships Increases resident and family satisfaction Quicker awareness of clinical problems Improves staff accountability Improves communication between shifts and with other disciplines Improves staff satisfaction Improves clinical and quality outcomes!!!

Consistent Assignment – Goal Definition Goal 2 – Consistent Assignment: Being regularly cared for by the same caregiver is essential to quality of care and quality of life. To maximize quality, as well as resident and staff relationships, the majority of nursing homes will employ “consistent assignment” of CNAs.

Consistent Assignment – Objectives The Objectives: The Campaign has defined consistent assignment as at least 85% of long stay residents in the nursing home having a maximum of eight CNA caregivers over a four-week period, and at least 85% of short stay residents having a maximum of eight CNA caregivers over a two week period. You may find out that your numbers are higher than 8 and that is OK! If your number is 12, you may want to get it down to 10 Set your goal

QI Process for Consistent Assignment PLAN (PDSA Cycle) Use the AE tool to calculate how many CNAs are caring for each resident Decide if this is something that needs to change If yes, ask why and how your staffing patterns contribute to the number of different CNAs taking care of residents. Ask the right questions: Is simply a matter of scheduling? High number of “difficult” residents? Too many call-outs? Educate everyone about consistent assignment See the “How-To Manual” slide and handout

Using the Consistent Assignment Tool ONLY national standardized tool that will allow comparisons Download the Excel-based tool on to your computer and save it with a name Set up the tool by adding names of residents and staff The tool is resident-centered not staff-centered and counts the number of caregivers taking care of residents NOT the number of residents being cared for by the caregiver

Using the Consistent Assignment Tool Tool calculates the average number of unique C.N.A.’s per resident for the past 7 days in weekly increments - ready for data entry into the Campaign website It is a 4 week tracking tool Use the tables from the Excel worksheet to brief your QA Committee and provide feedback to the staff

Downloading the Tool Please note you must have Excel to use the tools Go to the AE website and click on the Resources then Goal button Find the Tool under Goal 2 Download and SAVE the tool to your desktop computer (we suggest putting a date on it when you save it) Size the tool by using the View button in Excel Watch the WebEx that will teach you how to use the tool

11 Consistent Assignment Calculator

12 Instructions TAB

13 Common Qs & As TAB

14 CNA Tab

15 Residents TAB

16 Week 1 TAB

17 Summary TAB

Data Entry on AE Website We need national data on Consistent Assignment! Log on and enter Consistent Assignment (CA) data on AE website at least monthly Print off a copy of the data summary page of the CA tool for simplicity and as a record Your data is confidential– others cannot see it Provide feedback to staff and others through data and graphs

Data Entry Slides

Log in and Select goals.

To enter data for the organizational goals, click on the ‘Enter My Data’ Link on the left menu.

Click on ‘Submit Data’ for any of the organizational goals and you can view the fields that nursing homes will enter.

Goal 2: Consistent Assignment Data Entry