WALA News for May 2008

  1. WALA's AFH & CBRF Administrators Course in July
  2. Electronic Video Monitoring and Filming BAL Memo Draft
  3. MRSA - Best hand hygiene practices
  4. New WALA Store products
  5. Medication Management Initiative by BAL
  6. WALA Provider Member Outreach
  7. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Story
  8. The Caregiver Project (Caregivers Training)

1. WALA's AFH & CBRF Administrators Course in July

WALA has limited seating available! Due to high demand, WALA is offering the Administrators Course again in July. This course sold out in February and it was originally sold out for July, but we have switched locations to make more seating available. It will be on July 29th and 30th at the Alexian Village in Milwaukee. Cost is $199 per person for WALA members. This includes meals, a huge notebook and CD chocked full of material, resources and information to help meet your needs regardless of experience, and dynamic speakers all day long! To register for the course or to get more information go to The WALA Store.

2. Electronic Video Monitoring and Filming BAL Memo Draft

BAL is asking for your comments on a memo draft regarding Electronic Video Monitoring and Filming. All comments need to be in to WALA by May 22nd, 2008. Please note that this memo is for facility initiated, NOT for resident or family initiated video or filming. Also, this memo does not address audio only monitoring such as "baby monitors".

3. MRSA - Best hand hygiene practices

You can find a very informative PowerPoint presentation from the Assisted Living Forum on May 13th, 2008 on the WALA website. In it describes not only MRSA related information, but best practices for hand hygiene, including new evidence that alcohol based sanitizers are potentially more effective than hand washing in some situations. Check out this interesting presentation for more information!

4. The WALA Store update - New WALA Store products

Now available for sale is our Managed Care Webinar CD-ROM's. Learn at your own pace about the Managed Care initiative.

All presentations are done by Maggie McCullough. CD-ROMs are available for each of the courses or at a discounted price for all four. Go to The WALA Store at for more information.

5. Medication Management Initiative by BAL

Due to the increased needs of consumers with complex medication regimens, and occurrence of serious medication errors, the Bureau of Assisted Living has formed a workgroup in March 2007 called the Medication Management Initiative (M2I) workgroup. This workgroup was formed to come up with a tool to provide information, guidance, recommendations and resources to assisted living providers in Wisconsin. This workgroup has created a Medication Management Initiative Website that would act as a live document that would have best practices, forms, policies, and other resources. Completion of this website will occur in the near future, with an introduction in the form of a DQA memo. For more information about the Medication Management Initiative, see the PowerPoint slides on the WALA website, which describes the goals of the project, how the website will function, and resources that will be used.

6. WALA Provider Member Outreach

This summer the WALA staff will be contacting the main contact for each WALA provider member for our Outreach Campaign. We are looking forward to getting to know our WALA provider members better and to learn from your experiences, in hope of serving you better. We would like your input either by a face to face meeting or a phone call. If you would like to be part of our test group, contact sbass@ewala.org and Sarah Bass will get back to you.

7. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Story

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Mary Zahn has again been investigating nursing homes. While we do have indications that her story will focus on nursing homes, WALA has confirmed that she has contacted BAL for assisted living citations and enforcement actions. Please let WALA know if your assisted living has been contacted by a reporter from the Journal Sentinel.

8. The Caregiver Project (Caregivers Training)

This is Wisconsin's innovative training approach that utilizes multiple modes of delivery, including an experiential component and a series of topical workshops and a DVD-based training. The training is designed for direct caregivers and managers in nursing homes, long-term care hospitals, facilities serving people with developmental disabilities, hospices, home health agencies, community based residential facilities and personal care worker agencies. DHFS plans to continue funding the training through June 2008. During this time, the project will focus on train-the trainers to teach long-term care providers to train the materials themselves. For more information see The Caregiver Project.

 

 

 


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