[Northampton County, PA]–Gracedale employee Shannon Aleman, MPH, LTCO, QCP, recently earned the designation of “QAPI Certified Professional” from the American Association of Post-Acute Care Nursing. Section 6102(c) of the Affordable Care Act mandates that all skilled nursing facilities develop and maintain QAPI* programs, as outlined in Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Service (CMS) Requirements.

Shannon is a public health professional with more than 10 years of experience in skilled nursing, regulatory compliance, and quality assurance. She is also a Certified Long-Term Care Ombudsman skilled in resident advocacy, investigations, and root cause analysis to enhance care outcomes.

Shannon is committed to advocating for residents in nursing and personal care homes, monitoring care quality, investigating complaints, and identifying systemic improvements to enhance safety, dignity, and quality of life.

“Shannon has already shown the value she is bringing to our operations,” said County Executive Tara Zrinski. “We look forward to seeing how our QAPI processes evolve from a separate program into a daily proactive approach to ensuring quality of care. Shannon’s proven ability to lead Quality Assurance Performance Improvement initiatives, ensure compliance with state and federal regulations, and collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and regulatory agencies is second to none.”

Shannon also has experience in staff training, program oversight, and system-wide quality improvement efforts.

Shannon also completed the “Quality Improvement 101 Course” with the Mid-Atlantic CMS Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organizations. This is a program funded by CMS with the intention of helping nursing homes with their quality improvement efforts.

* According to CMS, QAPI integrates Quality Assurance (QA), which ensures services meet established standards, with Performance Improvement (PI), which continuously studies and improves processes to prevent problems and enhance outcomes. QAPI takes a systematic, comprehensive, and data-driven approach to maintaining and improving safety and quality in nursing homes while involving all nursing home caregivers in practical and creative problem solving.

Information provided to TVL by:
Northampton County Executive Office