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Published on April 22, 2025

Vitamin D Success Story – Video Interview on Insights from a Vitamin D Quality Improvement Initiative Implemented at Vibra Acute Care Hospital

Key Points

  • A critical care hospital in North Dakota implemented protocols to achieve a target vitamin D level of 50 ng/ml while educating hospital staff and patients about vitamin D; after project implementation, patients experienced reduced infection rates with trends of decreased re-admittance to a higher level of care, an increased number of patients discharged to home or rehab, decreased discharges to skilled nursing facilities, and decreased overall length of hospital stay.
  • Observations after initiation of the project included noticeable improvements in wound healing, decreased incidences of infections such as CAUTI and CLASBI, drastic differences in brain injury recovery, even some traumatic brain injury patients recovering much better than anticipated.
  • Are you interested in implementing a vitamin D screening and supplementation protocol in your practice? Let us know – we can help!  Contact us today.

Check Your Vitamin D Levels Here

 

This video interview between Jen Aliano, Director of GrassrootsHealth, and Bonnie Vangerud, MSN, RN, and Kristen Schimmel, MSN, RN, CCRN, is a discussion regarding a vitamin D quality improvement project initiated at Vibra acute care hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, the protocol followed, and the outcomes observed. Several key points are highlighted below.

For more information on this project, click here.

Access the GrassrootsHealth Vitamin D*Calculator here.

For those of you in charge of patient population outcomes and well-being, we hope the information presented here inspires you to take action with vitamin D – consider a vitamin D quality improvement project of your own! For questions or more information on starting a vitamin D quality improvement project, please contact us (see below for contact information).

“Vitamin D is very inexpensive, and evidence has shown it has proven outcomes, so why wouldn’t you want to do that for your patients? Give them every possible chance of recovery and resistance of infection. It’s easy, and it’s not harmful… it’s the right thing.”

Watch the Video

Interview Highlights

00:09 – 02:52 – Employees of a long-term acute care hospital learned about the health benefits of achieving and maintaining optimal vitamin D levels and took it upon themselves to initiate and implement new vitamin D protocols for their patients.

03:28 – 06:57 – The protocol focused on getting patient vitamin D levels up to 40-60 ng/ml using personalized dosing schedules with loading and maintenance doses and retesting to ensure correct dosages. Dosing was determined using the Vitamin D*Calculator at grassrootshealth.net/dcalculator.

05:15 – 06:04 – One hurdle was a lack of vitamin D knowledge and education among practitioners, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists – ongoing education has been essential.

06:10 – 06:45 – Patient education on maintaining vitamin D supplementation and levels was given at discharge.

09:04 – 12:06 – Most patients upon admission to the hospital were well below 20 ng/ml, some even had levels that were undetectable.

14:52 – 22:11 – Observations after initiation of the project included noticeable improvements in wound healing, decreased incidences of infections such as CAUTI and CLASBI, drastic differences in brain injury recovery, even some traumatic brain injury patients recovering much better than anticipated.

21:04 – 22:11 – While it cannot be determined that vitamin D alone is the reason for these improvements, since implementing this project they experienced many improved outcomes and other incredible observations, with zero cases of toxicity.

Donate Today

💛 Help Us Continue to Make a Global Impact! GrassrootsHealth is a nonprofit public health organization dedicated to promoting optimal health worldwide, with a primary focus on the role of vitamin D. Since 2007, we have teamed up with the world’s leading vitamin D researchers and experts to educate about vitamin D and to move vitamin D research into practice. Through evidence-based education, resources, tools, and our citizen-science approach to research (the D*action project), we empower individuals and practitioners alike to make informed and actionable decisions about their health and the health of their patients.

Donate Here

Thank you for supporting our mission and our ongoing commitment to vitamin D research, education, and advocacy!

Are you interested in implementing a vitamin D screening and supplementation protocol in your practice? Let us know – we can help!

Beth Sanford, DNP, RN, LNC
Vitamin D Project Lead & Consultant
[email protected]

Jen Aliano, MS, CCN
GrassrootsHealth Director
[email protected]

Bonnie Vangerud, MSN, RN
Chief Clinical Officer
Vibra Hospital of Fargo
[email protected]

Kristen Schimmel MSN, RN, CCRN
Professional Development Coordinator
Vibra Hospital of Fargo
[email protected]

How Are Your Levels of Vitamin D and Other Important Nutrients?

Check your vitamin D, omega-3s, magnesium, and other important markers today as part of the vitamin D*action project.

Measure your:

  • Vitamin D
  • Magnesium PLUS Elements (including zinc, copper, selenium, mercury, cadmium and lead)
  • Omega-3 Fatty Acids
  • hsCRP (for Inflammation)
  • HbA1c (for Blood Sugar)
  • and more

Did you know that each of the above can be measured at home using a simple blood spot test? As part of our ongoing research project, you can order your home blood spot test kit to get your levels, followed by education and steps to take to help you reach your optimal target levels. Start by enrolling and ordering your kit to measure each of the above important markers, and make sure you are getting enough of each to support better health and wellbeing!

Build your custom kit here

Start Here to Measure Your Levels

How Can You Use this Information for YOUR Health?

Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D and other nutrient levels can help improve your health now and for your future. Measuring is the only way to make sure you are getting enough!

STEP 1 Order your at-home blood spot test kit to measure vitamin D and other nutrients of concern to you, such as omega-3s, magnesium, essential and toxic elements (zinc, copper, selenium, lead, cadmium, mercury); include hsCRP as a marker of inflammation or HbA1c for blood sugar health

STEP 2 Answer the online questionnaire as part of the GrassrootsHealth study

STEP 3 Using our educational materials and tools (such as our dose calculators), assess your results to determine if you are in your desired target range or if actions should be taken to get there

STEP 4 After 3-6 months of implementing your changes, re-test to see if you have achieved your target level(s)

Enroll in D*action and Build Your Custom Test Kit!