I was talking to a prospective client recently—a Director of Nursing for a Skilled Nursing Facility with about 130 residents. I was trying to get a feel for how they work and whether or not QA Reader would be a good fit for them.

I asked my normal questions: how many residents, how do they currently report incidents (paper or in an electronic health record), how do they keep track of incidents, frequent fallers, potentially serious events, etc. As we were talking, the DON suddenly blurted out, “Incident reports are a waste of time!”

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 title of this article is more than a little audacious and presumptuous, so let me simplify. The following is what I have learned from the best providers in the industry. You know who they are. You know the teams that run them. You know their leaders.

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.

QA Reader is revolutionizing quality assessment in senior living facilities. When our customers hear about its ability to prevent adverse events and reduce nurses' administrative hours by as much as 500 hours, they naturally have a lot of questions. Here are the 10 most common questions we get.