Most senior living organizations still attempt to track adverse events by keying them into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Tracking, managing, and reporting adverse events is mission-critical to senior living facilities and their parent organizations.

EHRs are patient-focused, while adverse event management is facility-focused. So, quality and nursing staff take matters into their own hands to handle adverse event tracking in spreadsheets. 

In a 48-week study, an open-label, flexible dose of risperidone was administered for 16 weeks to 180 patients with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia with agitation and/or aggression. The patients in the study had a mean age of 79 years at baseline. Patients were moderately impaired with a mean mini mental state exam of 14.

Per Anjali Patel, D.O., “I think the clinical impact we see here is that for patients with hallucinations and particularly auditory hallucinations, antipsychotic discontinuation should be done very, very cautiously because they do have a very high risk of relapse. Close monitoring will be necessary and antipsychotic medications promptly reinstated if relapse occurs.” The risk for relapse was particularly high when the hallucinations were primarily auditory. In fact, visual hallucinations were not predictive of relapse.

An EHR is an indispensable tool in today’s senior living communities. It provides you with a secure location to store your resident-specific data, including the recording of incidents and accidents. The paperless capability means you don’t have to worry about filing papers or losing important documents.

But recording individual incidents isn’t enough to improve quality of care and help prevent future accidents and falls. Although you’ll have the information you need on a resident’s history, this alone can’t help you improve your quality outcomes. The EHR simply isn’t designed to do this.

So how can you use the data you already have in your EHR to improve quality outcomes and financial performance?

The IMPACT Act requires that CMS implement cross-setting quality measures. These items assess the need for assistance with self-care and mobility activities. You don't need to know the coding process, but you should share this type of information with your MDS team so that they are compliant with the new regulations for section GG under the IMPACT act.

The SNF QRP will begin collecting data from MDS assessments (and section GG) on October 1, 2016. The good news is that Section GG only applies to residents admitted to a skilled stay in your community! It must be completed at the time of admission and at the time of discharge. If you're combining an Admission assessment with a 5-day assessment, complete both Sections G and GG. The look-back period for this assessment is days 1-3, starting with the start of the most recent medicare stay.  

You probably have a number of prospective residents and their families touring your assisted living or skilled nursing community on a regular basis. Although many will walk through, only some will ultimately choose your community.

If you’re looking to recruit more residents, look at your community with the eyes of an outsider. Sometimes they will see things that deter them that you may not have noticed. Here are the five most important things families will be observing during their visit.

The IMPACT Act was a bipartisan bill that was passed in September of 2014 and signed into law in October by President Obama. The act requires standardized resident assessment data that will be uniform.

The goal is to:

• Promote quality care and improved outcomes
• Compare data across post-acute care
• Improve discharge planning
• Enable the exchangeability or interoperability of information and data
• Facilitate coordinated care

More and more research and investigation has revealed the great need for quality sleep in the elderly. Evidence has shown that the outcomes of better quality sleep may encourage better healing, reduce falls, and reduce use of psychoactive medications—ultimately improving behaviors and psychosocial well-being.

It intrigues me that someone like Muhammed Ali, who was highly respected for his contributions to the boxing world and his philanthropism, could succumb to septic shock! As we educate our caregivers on the importance of early detection and prompt medical treatment, this is a good reminder that even with the highest level of care, an elderly, compromised body is at risk. None of our residents is protected from sepsis—there is no immunization, only early detection and prompt treatment.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) electronically submit direct care staffing information based on payroll and other auditable data. CMS began collecting data from nursing homes on a voluntary basis on October 1, 2015, and nationwide mandatory reporting began on July 1, 2016.

Falls happen every day in senior living communities. While we may not be able to avoid falls completely, there are some smart and proven ways to significantly reduce them.