Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare You may have noticed in yesterday’s news from CMS that there is publicly available guidance training for nursing home providers in the Quality, Safety and Education Portal (QSEP) to explain these updates and changes to regulations and guidance. Today, that training is now available here.…… Continue reading QSEP Training: Long Term Care Regulatory and Interpretive Guidance and Psychosocial Severity Guide Updates – June 2022

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has posted the June 2022 Five-Star State-Level Health Inspection Cut Point Table. “This document – Five Star Quality Rating System Technical Users’ Guide: State Level Health Inspection Cut Point Table – provides the data for the state-level cut points for the star ratings included in…… Continue reading Five-Star State-Level Health Inspection Cut Point Table – June 2022 

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare In case you missed yesterday’s breaking news, CMS also posted this Press Release which is the title of this blog. This Press Release is another must-read document.  I’ve excerpted key elements of that below. To begin helping address the staffing issue while the rulemaking process…… Continue reading CMS Issues Significant Updates to Improve the Safety and Quality Care for Long-Term Care Residents and Calls for Reducing Room Crowding

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Just a few minutes ago, CMS posted QSO-22-19-NH. This QSO Memorandum has a lot of moving parts that impact ALL LTC facilities. Beneath the hyperlink in the 1st paragraph of this blog, you’ll find these resources: QSO-22-19-NH (PDF)… 6 pagesAppendix PP Guidance to Surveyor for…… Continue reading Breaking News: CMS Posts Updated Appendix PP and Survey Guidance

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare NHSN has posted the slideset from the Event-Level Vaccination Forms: Office Hours and FAQs. There are 58 slides from this webinar. The focus of this webinar was item #3 in the above overview slide – the Person-Level Vaccination Forms. You’ll find many other such resources on…… Continue reading NHSN Event-Level Vaccination Forms: Office Hours and FAQs – June 2022

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare “The COVID-19 pandemic has hit nursing homes particularly hard. To reduce the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services amended the infection control requirements for nursing homes to include a requirement for nursing homes to ensure that staff received…… Continue reading OIG Report: Estimated 91 Percent of Nursing Home Staff Nationwide Received the Required COVID-19 Vaccine Doses/Estimated 56 Percent of Staff Nationwide Received a Booster Dose

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare On June 16, 2022, I blogged on the ONC conducting a national phone-based survey to better understand the state of health IT use and interoperability among skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and hospice facilities.  This past Tuesday (June 21, 2022), AHCA/NCAL provided additional information about the…… Continue reading More Information on ONC HIT Survey                           

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The June update of Appendix B to the RAI 3.0 User’s Manual contains changes to the list of State RAI Coordinators, MDS Automation Coordinators, RAI Panel members, and CMS locations and contacts. The file is located in the Downloads section below. The direct link to the updated Appendix B…… Continue reading June 2022 Update to Appendix B – RAI User’s Manual  

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP  Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Five Star Preview Reports will be available on June 17, 2022. To access these reports, select the CASPER Reporting link located on the CMS QIES Systems for Providers page. Once in the CASPER Reporting system, select the ‘Folders’ button, then select ‘My Inbox’ or…… Continue reading Five-Star Preview Reports Available 

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare  CMS updated the COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Health Care Providers listing on Thursday, June 16, 2022. This 45-page document shows updates related to QSO-22-15-NH, NLTC and LSC – specifically the expirations effective June 6, 2022.  You can find those at: the bottom of…… Continue reading COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Health Care Providers Updated