Applying the Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Circle of Success to improving and sustaining quality

Looking forward to the Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) program to be implemented and required in 2014, and as nursing home staff provide care for residents with increasingly complex health issues, knowledge of how to implement quality improvement (QI) is imperative. The nursing home administrator and director of nursing (DON) provide overall leadership, but it is the primary responsibility of the DON and other registered nurse staff to implement and manage the day to day QI process. This article describes potential roles of nursing leaders and key components of a QI project using a pressure ulcer case study exemplar to illustrate a quality improvement process. The authors suggest specific methods that RN leaders can employ using the Advancing Excellence Campaign Circle of Success as an organizing framework along with evidence-based resources. Nursing home leaders could use this article as a guideline for implementing any clinical quality improvement process.