New Csomay Center team member and College of Nursing faculty member, Dr. Kim Bergen-Jackson, PhD, RN-GERO, LNHA, FAAN, Clinical Associate Professor was formerly the Chief Operation Office – Health Services at Oaknoll. With her years of experience ensuring residents at Oaknoll received the best care and lived in a community where they could thrive, Dr. Bergen-Jackson is now working to make that possible through her Iowa Nursing Home Quality Coalition.
Through the coalition, nursing homes around the state of Iowa will work together on quality improvement projects, share best practice and have access to expert assistance to improve or maintain star ratings. Dr. Bergen-Jackson aims to use her team to help improve quality metrics on a state level and promote the efforts of the nursing homes on the coalition website. “The goal of this coalition is to allow families not to worry about where they are sending their loved ones to be cared for,” says Dr. Bergen-Jackson.
Already, Dr. Bergen-Jackson has gathered a team of experts to meet and discuss best practices for helping facilities across Iowa. The team includes 17 people from different areas at the University of Iowa and across the state. Some notable members are Dr. Harleah Buck, Director of the Csomay Center, Dr. Amy Colbert from Tippie College of Business, Dr. Mercedes Bern-Klug from the School of Social Work, and Dr. Ryan Carnahan from the College of Public Health.
The coalition aims to tackle improvements for these communities by securing better funds to enhance preventive practices. For example, obtaining funds to help reduce falls for residents. By improving these metrics on a state level, nursing homes with low one- or two-star ratings can hopefully move up in the state metrics, providing more quality options for quality care.
Another way the coalition plans to help is by providing a webpage that will allow easy data collection to track metrics and access to free evidence-based resources, nursing homes can use to enhance resident care practices, such as guidelines for reducing fall risks and managing medications. Another goal Dr. Bergen-Jackson hopes to achieve with this coalition is increasing the direct care workforce. “There is a revolving door of workers, and that is one of the main issues,” says Dr. Bergen-Jackson.
The next coalition meeting is in February, where more details about the website and ways nursing homes can improve will be discussed. If you are part of a long-term care facility or nursing home, please reach out to Dr. Bergen-Jackson at kimberly-bergen@uiowa.edu for more information.