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Wisconsin Alliance of Quality for the Aging (WAQA)

Program Overview   

 

In the changing world of healthcare, we have had to adjust to decreased reimbursement, limited human resources, increased resident acuity, and increased consumer demand for quality. This change has been difficult for all long-term care facilities, but has been made easier for Morrow Home.

 

All nursing facilities are required by Federal Law to implement a quality improvement program. Morrow Memorial Home has chosen The WAQA Program as our quality improvement program. 

 

Utilizing Federal and State guidelines, the program is aimed at providing quality care through best practices. WAQA believes that the key to promoting best practice is through teamwork and empowerment of line staff. Along with improved quality care, WAQA homes have seen a decrease in staff turnover related to the increase in staff decision-making and responsibility. All employees need to feel that they are an integral part of what makes a facility work and WAQA does just that. WAQA Innovative Solutions for Integrated Health care was developed in 1994 by a group of not-for-profit Wisconsin long term care facilities that wanted to take a proactive stance regarding managed care. Morrow Memorial Home became a part of WAQA in 1999 with the implementation of the WAQA Program. 

 

In order to provide best practice, extensive staff training must occur. Care resource teams are educated on best practice of different care modules, and then share this knowledge with their fellow coworkers. They then become the care module experts and assist staff with implementing programs that promote quality of life.


Frequently asked Questions:
What are the care modules of WAQA?
The modules consist of the areas of concern related to providing care to the geriatric population: skin condition, elimination, nutrition, restorative needs, fall prevention, physical assessment and psychosocial well-being and management.
 
How is Morrow Home able to assess the effectiveness of our WAQA program?
Data is collected on a monthly and quarterly basis on restorative levels, number of falls - what time and where they occur, pressure ulcer prevalence, nutritional status, number of residents with diagnoses of depression and their quarterly depression scale results, psychotropic and hypnotic drug use, and urinary incontinence rate. 
  
How does Morrow Home use the WAQA data?
We use the data in several ways. We use the assessment score results to assist in resident care planning. We also use the data to problem solve areas of concern within the facility. This is Quality Assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement.
 
How is resident WAQA data kept confidential?
All WAQA data on individual residents is kept confidentially in-house like all of our resident data.  Any release of data contains no resident identifying information.  All other releases of WAQA data is in summary form and contain no specific names.
 
What staff benefits are there for WAQA?
WAQA takes a team approach to managed care. It realizes that the best decision makers are the ones that are out there on a day-to-day basis assisting residents with their care. By empowering our line staff we have been able to decrease staff turnover and increase staff interest in the program.
 
What resident benefits are there for WAQA at Morrow Home?
It is a program that allows us to give the highest quality care to our residents utilizing the most up-to-date Best Practices information and research. WAQA helps us promote quality of life for our residents, and continue our “Christian Tradition of Caring”.