The AHA is working to support hospitals and health systems as they address social determinants of health, eliminate health care disparities and provide comprehensive care to every patient in every community—all of which improve community health. The AHA is continuously developing resources on how hospitals can address the social determinants of health in their communities. The website includes reports, case studies, webinars and videos on eight social determinants of health.
Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) Guide: Implementing Medicare’s Annual Wellness Visit A Reference Guide for Practices
This guide is intended to help practices implementing Annual Wellness Visit (AWV).
Anticoagulant Adverse Drug Event (ADE)
This is designed for use by nursing home staff, and could be used on other settings. It has information for identification of ADEs including: ADE definition, quick facts, common ADEs, and occurrences that could point to an ADE.
Anticoagulant Essential Communication Elements Guide
This is designed for use in any facility by staff or a healthcare provider. Improvement of cross-setting management of anticoagulants during transitions of care to prevent adverse drug events and subsequently reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and readmissions.
Anticoagulation Action Plan
CDC estimates that among the most common causes of hospital admissions, adverse drug events associated with anticoagulants is one of the top five reasons. Adverse events are associated with bleeding, blood clots, stroke, MI, brain hemorrhage, and other events. The Anticoagulation Action Plan provides SMART goals which may be initiated at your facility in a stepwise manner to progress toward an Anticoagulant Monitoring Program.
Antipsychotic Action Plan
The Antipsychotic Action Plan template is to be used by clinical staff in the nursing home setting to assess and review medication management. It is intended to be a template capable of being modified as needed.
The SMART goals in the plan address education, non-medication interventions, documentation and gradual dose reduction strategies and outcomes. The resource section includes links to augment education and implementation of interventions.
Antipsychotic Adverse Drug Event (ADE)
This is designed for nursing home staff. It has information about ADEs including: definition, facts, common ADEs, and occurrences that could point to an ADE.
Antipsychotic Drug List
This resource provides a quick list of antipsychotic medications available in the United States. Post this list near the medication cart/room as a resource for staff administering medications.
Appropriate Use of Immediate-Release vs. Extended Release Opioids
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, 2022, when initiating opioid therapy clinicians should prescribe immediate-release (IR) opioids instead of extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) opioids, which are slower acting medications with a longer duration of pain relieving action.
This guide provides definitions for opioid naïve and tolerant, identifies key differences between IR and ER/LA opioids, guides transitioning from IR to ER/LA, offers treatment pearls including opioid tapering algorithms, patient education and opioid disposal, provides comprehensive tables for commonly used IR and ER/LA opioids, and includes a morphine milligram equivalent conversion table.
ASPR – Outbreak Considerations for Long Term Care Communities Toolkit
This toolkit is an informative resource for Skilled Nursing Facilities to use as reference to make sure their facilities are prepared for infectious disease outbreaks.
Nursing Home Survey Tag Specific Emergency Preparedness Checklist
Checklist to cross reference facility emergency preparedness plan with CMS survey requirements to ensure all elements are addressed in facility emergency preparedness plan. There is also a companion document that provides links to resources for emergency preparedness plan development.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mm1VLd8robyygaA_NBKmO-rSC2OWCqwL/view?usp=drive_link
Tag Specific Emergency Preparedness Resources
Companion document to Nursing Home Tag Specific Emergency Preparedness Checklist
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ae55H6eMFmwoV9Idj2nx-owWvfgZnFZ5
Avoiding Ableist Language
Disability metaphors abound in our culture, and they exist almost entirely as pejoratives. This handout serves as a reference for linguistic microaggressions and everyday, casual ableism.
Best Practice Strategies for Health Equity Data Collection
This resource supplements the Health Equity Organization Assessment (HEOA) and offers best practices to address opportunities for improvement from the HEOA results. It is a valuable resource for any organization seeking best practices for improving consistent patient demographic data collection – including REaL (race, ethnicity and language) and SDOH (social determinants of health) – and using the data to identify and address health disparities.
NQIIC Health Equity Roadmap
This resource covers three key areas that should be addressed before beginning any quality improvement or patient safety initiative. It does have a focus on health equity.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qs1SYZ3LnVmMFjM3AINiYygWAZpPzd–/view?usp=sharing
Best Practice Strategies for Organizational Health Equity
This resource outlines strategies and corresponding tasks and resources for each of the seven HEOA categories to assist organizations to address opportunities for improvement based on their HEOA assessment report.
Best Practices from the Field: Using Social Determinants of Health Resource and Referral Data to Increase Equitable Access and Connection Rates to Essential Resources
Prior to COVID-19, health care investments in SDOH programs to support connecting patients to community resources were on the rise, supported by a proliferation of technology solutions like Aunt Bertha, Unite Us, NowPow and others. These resource databases serve as critical tools for tracking the local services landscape and connecting people to the essential resources they need to be healthy (Cartier et al. 2019). However, when adopting these technology solutions to support SDOH programs, it is important to recognize that more resource information does not always result in people being connected to resources. There are best practices for managing resource information, and using and interpreting the data to effectively and equitably connect people to resources. Here, we aim to provide examples to demonstrate the ways in which data usage and interpretation can impact equitable access to essential resources and improve connection rates.
Blood Thinner Safety Plan
This is designed for patients. It helps patients determine if they are ok with their anticoagulant treatment, should contact their doctor or go to the ED.