Statewide training network raises the bar for Pennsylvania nursing homes

A groundbreaking initiative helps long-term care staff access expert-led education that directly improves care quality in the state’s 600-plus Medicaid nursing homes.

At 2 p.m. every Thursday, nursing home teams across Pennsylvania are logging into more than just another Zoom meeting — they’re joining a movement to improve the lives of tens of thousands of older adults.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ Office of Long-Term Living and the Community HealthChoices Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, hosts weekly virtual webinars through the Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Learning Network. This groundbreaking initiative helps long-term care staff — from frontline workers to administrators — access expert-led education that directly improves care quality in the state’s 600-plus Medicaid nursing homes.

A partnership to support quality care
OLTL is the branch of the Department of Human Services that oversees long-term services and supports for older adults and individuals with physical disabilities, helping them live independently in their communities or care settings. Community HealthChoices Medicaid Managed Care Organizations coordinate care for Medicaid recipients, ensuring they receive person-centered services that meet both their medical and long-term care needs. Together with JHF, these organizations are ensuring nursing homes get the latest helpful information to improve care for their residents.

To turn this education into action, the Learning Network also supports the state’s Nursing Facility Quality Incentive Program — a pay-for-performance initiative that rewards facilities for achieving or improving on critical quality measures, such as reducing rehospitalizations, falls, pressure injuries and the use of antipsychotic medications.

From pandemic pivot to permanent platform
The Learning Network didn’t begin as a virtual education effort. In 2019, JHF proposed to the state a plan to launch five regional in-person teams to improve staff training in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes. But when COVID struck, the need for remote education about infection control became urgent. JHF quickly adapted, launching the first webinars in just five weeks. That emergency response effort evolved into a lasting resource, with more than 200 webinars delivered over five years — and counting.

Education that works
Each week, the hourlong webinars bring together top experts from Pennsylvania and nationwide to present practical tools, share models of care and highlight best practices. Nursing homes from across the state regularly present their own success stories, creating a peer-to-peer learning environment. The sessions are recorded and archived on JHF’s Tomorrow’s HealthCare portal, where facilities can also access presentation slides, tools, and additional resources. Materials are also shared through statewide nursing home associations to broaden access.

Topics are diverse and timely. The Network focuses on a new theme each quarter, such as workforce development and retention, transitions of care and clinical management strategies. JHF-led programs — including dementia and end-of-life education, the Teaching Nursing Home model and workforce initiatives — are featured prominently.

The Network’s Operations and Education Committee meets regularly to shape future content and identify subject matter experts. Surveys conducted twice a year ensure programming reflects the needs of providers on the ground.

Making a measurable impact
Today, more than 80% of nursing facilities in Pennsylvania participate in the Learning Network.

The results speak for themselves. According to the state, 99% of nursing homes that participated in the Learning Network during any given year were eligible for increased payments through the Quality Incentive Program. On average, facilities receive more than $30,000 annually for meeting quality benchmarks — one of which is attending the Learning Network.

At a time when the long-term care sector faces unprecedented challenges, JHF and its partners at the state and in the Medicaid Managed Care organizations in Pennsylvania are showing the nation what’s possible when education, collaboration and innovation come together — with residents’ well-being at the center. PJC

Stacie Bails-Bonenberger, MOT, OTR/L, is program manager of aging initiatives at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. Nancy Zionts, MBA, is chief program and strategy officer at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.