Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be hosting a 2-day Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) in-person ‘Train the Trainer’ event for providers on May 7 and 8, 2019, at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center, 2345 McGee Street,…… Continue reading SNF QRP Provider In-Person Training Event – Registration Open

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® On March 14th, CMS posted updates to LTC survey materials. CMS added these documents to the Survey Resource .zip file: The above chart is taken from the updated Revision History for LTC Survey Process Documents and Files document.

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® I blogged last week to let you know of the specialized training now available on the CDC website for infection prevention and control in nursing homes as well as Infection Preventionist training. CMS has now officially confirmed my spring fever in QSO-19-10-NH issued yesterday, March…… Continue reading Infection Preventionist Training Now Available – CMS Official Announcements

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® Our weather the past few weeks certainly doesn’t indicate spring is anywhere near, however CDC is providing us, as promised, with some signs of spring – infection prevention and control training.  I blogged about this some 50 weeks ago.  The CDC is much more reliable…… Continue reading Spring 2019 is Here – For Infection Preventionist Training

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® Tuesday, March 5, 2019 was a busy day for CMS postings.  Two such postings should be reviewed by your team: Revisions to Appendix Q, Guidance on Immediate Jeopardy – QSO-19-09-ALL April 2019 Improvements to Nursing Home Compare and the Five Star Rating – QSO-19-08-NH  …… Continue reading CMS Issues 2 Guidance Documents That You Need to Review!

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® CMS NEWS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 5, 2019 Contact: CMS Media Relations (202) 690-6145 | CMS Media Inquiries CMS Improving Nursing Home Compare in April 2019 Changes offer greater support to consumers looking to compare quality of Nursing Homes Today, the Centers for Medicare &…… Continue reading CMS Improving Nursing Home Compare in April 2019

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® CMS is updating the Quality Improvement and Evaluation System Starting in March, the Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES), Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) and Automated Survey Processing Environment (ASPEN) will undergo a series of modernizing enhancements. Once updated, the system will be…… Continue reading CMS Updating QIES/ASAP System Starting in March

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® For the second time since October 1, 2018 (implementation of MDS 3.0 version 1.16), CMS has posted another errata document. The document, dated February 13, 2019, was uploaded to the CMS website with a date of February 22, 2019 (the website shows the date of…… Continue reading Updated MDS 3.0 RAI Manual Errata Document Posted

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® CMS surprised all LTC providers late yesterday and posted the latest version of the Quality Measures User’s Manual. This latest version is 110 pages in length and carries an effective date of January 1, 2019. The MDS 3.0 QM User’s Manual Version 12.0 has been…… Continue reading MDS 3.0 QM User’s Manual Version 12.0 Now Available

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare® “In response to requests from nursing homes interested in comparing their results with those of other nursing homes on the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPSTM) Nursing Home Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) established the Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety…… Continue reading Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture – 2019 User Database Report