Patient Safety Success Story: Hampshire Memorial Hospital and War Memorial Hospital Extended Care Facilities

In April 2024, Quality Insights held a two-day bootcamp for nursing home infection preventionists (IPs) in West Virginia.

The WV IP Leadership Bootcamp was created and led by Quality Insights Infection Preventionist and Quality Improvement Specialist Jennifer Brown, RN, BSN, CIC.

In addition to the in-person event held at the Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, West Virginia, Brown hosted six virtual sessions. The program provided essential training on infection control in long-term care, advancing Quality Insights’ initiative to decrease healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) that lead to hospitalizations.

One infection preventionist who took advantage of the bootcamp’s educational and networking opportunities was Kim Rosa, RN. Rosa is an infection preventionist for Valley Health Systems, overseeing the infection control program for the hospital and long-term care units at Hampshire Memorial Hospital and War Memorial Hospital in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

Rosa is an experienced IP with infection control experience in the hospital setting, but Rosa said she had less experience in long-term care. Rosa said she found herself working in an area that felt unfamiliar as she worked to assist the hospitals’ extended care facilities with their infection prevention and control programs.

“Long-term care has a different set of regulations and guidelines that could feel a bit overwhelming at times,” Rosa said.

Rosa said the Infection Preventionist Leadership Bootcamp came at the ideal time to help her develop IC programs for these extended care facilities. She said she used what she learned to help develop a long-term care IC program and build a successful team.

She said the most helpful components of the bootcamp were the education and resources for pulling together fundamentals of the IC program. Rosa said this enabled her to develop rapport with the long-term care team and open lines of communication.

She said the educational resources to share with residents and families at resident council and family meetings were beneficial to resident care and quality.

“Quality Insights’ bootcamp has helped me immensely with educational resources to assist with resident and family communication,” Rosa said.

Rosa said the bootcamp also gave her the opportunity to network and develop contacts with other nursing home IPs.

Rosa said ongoing support provided by Brown and Quality Insights continues to be very helpful in ongoing development of the facilities’ long-term care IC program.

“Jennifer Brown has been very helpful in answering questions and if not sure, she finds the answer and gets back to me in a timely manner,” Rosa said.