Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Government Accountability Office has posted this January 2022 Health Care Capsule to “summarize past GAO reports on concerns about nursing home quality of care, consumer information, and COVID-19. It also describes relevant GAO recommendations and agency efforts to address them and identifies relevant policy questions.”…… Continue reading GAO Health Care Capsule: Improving Nursing Home Quality and Information

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare A team of Brown University researchers asked this question: Was the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM), implemented in October 2019, associated with rehabilitation therapy utilization and health outcomes of patients admitted to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs)? Their findings: In this cross-sectional study of 201,084 patients admitted…… Continue reading Association Between the PDPM, Therapy Utilization and Patient Outcomes in U.S. SNFs

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes is committed to improving the quality of care for individuals with dementia living in nursing homes. The National Partnership has a mission to deliver health care that is person-centered, comprehensive and interdisciplinary with a specific focus…… Continue reading National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes: Antipsychotic Medication Use Data Reports (Q2 – 2021) Available

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The next CMS Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF)/Long Term Care (LTC) Open Door Forum scheduled for:   Date:  Thursday, January 27, 2022 Start Time:  2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) This call will be Conference Call Only. To participate by phone: Dial: 1-888-455-1397 & Conference…… Continue reading Upcoming CMS SNF/LTC Open Door Forum – January 27, 2022

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Provider Preview Reports have been updated and are now available. These reports contain provider performance scores for quality measures, which will be published on Care Compare and Provider Data Catalog (PDC) during the April 2022 refresh of the websites. The data contained within the Preview Reports are based…… Continue reading SNF Provider Preview Reports – Now Available

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare As promised, CMS has posted the updated Nursing Home Compare Technical Users’ Guide January 2022. It’s a 34-page guide with these revisions:  Please download, review and reference this Guide – it’s important to be informed as the next steps unfold (reference my recent blog  : The…… Continue reading Five-Star Quality Rating System Technical User’s Guide Updated – Public Reporting of Turnover and Weekend Staffing Information

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has posted/provided an infographic that your LTC facility may find helpful. It’s also found on the Current Emergencies page:

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS posted QSO-22-08-NH late Friday afternoon, January 7, 2022. “Staffing in nursing homes has a substantial impact on the quality of care and outcomes residents experience. For more than ten years, CMS has been posting information on facility staffing measures on the Medicare.gov website Nursing Home…… Continue reading CMS to Post Nursing Home Staff Turnover and Weekend Staffing Levels

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP  Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Resident Assessment Validation and Entry System (jRAVEN) was developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). jRAVEN is a free Java based software application which provides an option for facilities to collect and maintain MDS Assessment data for subsequent submission to the appropriate…… Continue reading jRAVEN (CMS Free MDS Software) Updated

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS posted the following message on January 4, 2022: The MDS 3.0 QM User’s Manual V15.0 and accompanying Risk Adjustment Appendix File for MDS 3.0 Quality Measure User’s Manual V15 have been posted. The MDS 3.0 QM User’s Manual V15.0 contains detailed specifications for the MDS 3.0 quality…… Continue reading MDS 3.0 QM User’s Manual Version 15.0 Now Available