UPDATE Weekly

In a recent survey of our member providers, the number one issue noted was staff retention and reducing employee turnover. We have been fortunate enough to secure a nationally recognized speaker on this topic, Cara Silletto, MBA, President of Crescendo Strategies. Crescendo Strategies is a firm committed to reducing the unnecessary employee turnover by bridging generational gaps and making leaders more effective in their roles. Cara currently sits in a unique spot for her specialty of bridging the great generational divide, because she is an early Millennial herself, born in 1981, yet she is equipped with an MBA and more than 14 years of experience learning the unwritten expectations of older managers and business owners in order to advance her own career. Workforce Magazine named Cara a “Game Changer” and Recruiter.com named her in their “Top 10 Company Culture Experts to Watch.” Cara is also the co-author of “What’s Next in HR.”

Click Here to watch a short video from Cara!

About the Program

Join us for our Workforce Summit, where we’ll tackle your staffing challenges head on! Come learn insights about the shifting demographics of the workforce, employees’ evolving expectations, and strategies for improving staffing stability and reducing unnecessary employee turnover. We’ll also dive into the mindset of your Millennial workers, those under 37, to explain exactly why they think and work so differently than previous generations. By the time you leave this workshop, you’ll discover the true cost of employee turnover, know how to assess your brand as an employer and walk away with realistic plans for improving your workforce woes.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the current and shifting workforce demographics
• Discuss the evolution of employee expectations over the past decade
• Learn how generational differences impact the workforce and why today’s youngest generation of workers thinks and acts differently than previous generations
• Discover strategies for reducing unnecessary employee turnover and increasing staffing stability

Dates Offered:

June 27th – Charlotte, NC
June 28th – Raleigh, NC

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THE BROCHURE!

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The sixth annual NCHCFA Summer Symposium will be August 9-11, 2017 at the Embassy Suites Resort at Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC. To view the Schedule of Events click here. Brochures will be available soon! Please call the Association at (919) 782-3827 if you need additional details.

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Until June 26th, CMS is accepting stakeholder comments identifying the financial and regulatory burdens resulting from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’(CMS) Proposed Rule: Medicare Program: Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities for FY 2018, SNF Value-Based Purchasing Program, etc.

Submission of your most significant concerns and descriptions of budgetary impacts may result in major portions of the Requirements being updated, repealed, or delayed. Please add any regulation that you feel imposes an excessive burden by identifying the rule by number as well as the points that have concerned you the most and represent the greatest burden for your operation. Although we are soliciting comments on the requirements of participation, providers are able to submit comments about anything contained within the proposed rule.

Link to the submission site for these comments:

https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=CMS-2017-0060-0002

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Make plans today to join your colleagues for the sixth annual NCHCFA Summer Symposium. The three-day event will be August 9-11, 2017 at the Embassy Suites Resort at Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call the Embassy Suites Resort at (800) 876-0010 to reserve your overnight room. Use group code “HCA” to identify yourself as a NC Health Care Facilities Association Convention attendee! To make your reservation on-line, visit http://tinyurl.com/summersymposium2017.

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Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to dismiss the pending preliminary injunction (PI) appeal in American Health Care Association (AHCA) v Price (previously Burwell). This is good news. It means nursing facilities may continue to use pre-dispute arbitration agreements until the litigation is decided on its merits at the district court.

As background, the key issue in AHCA v Price is whether the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CMS violated the Federal Arbitration Act and exceeded their statutory authority by banning pre-dispute arbitration agreements in nursing facilities in the Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Reform of Requirements for Long-Term Care Facilities; Final Rule (Oct. 4, 2016).

Earlier this week, CMS issued a proposed rule that would revise the rule that is the subject of the litigation. In response to the new proposed rule, AHCA President and CEO Mark Parkinson said, “We applaud today’s proposed rule that reverses the ban on nursing care facilities entering into pre-dispute arbitration agreements with their residents, which a federal court last year barred CMS from implementing. The ban was an overreach, flying in the face of the Federal Arbitration Act and Congressional intent. Arbitration has been proven and tested to be fair and effective. Arbitration produces swifter resolution to disputes, compensates residents without undue litigation expense for either party, and reduces the funding burden on the Medicare and Medicaid programs. We greatly appreciate CMS and the Trump Administration making the determination that this ban is not in the best interest of our nation’s millions of patients, residents and families, and the providers who care for them.”

A CMS factsheet about the proposed rule can be found here.

Please contact Dianne De La Mare at AHCA with any questions.

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The NC Triangle Coalition has scheduled a workshop to provide an overview of the newly published CMS standards related to non-hospital, emergency management programs and provide best practices for conducting risk assessments, plan development, and exercise conduct. This training will take place on Wednesday, June 14th in Durham, NC. For additional information and a registration link, click here.

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Person Centered ADL Care – Focus on mouth care & bathing.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017
1:00PM – 2:00PM EST

Registration is Required
See detailed registration information below.
Dial-In: (800) 747-5150
Access Code: 2323667#

Speaker –

Philip D. Sloane, MD, MPH – Elizabeth and Oscar Goodwin Distinguished Professor of Family Medicine Co-Director, Program on Aging, Disability and Long-Term Care, the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research – UNC Chapel Hill

Registration Instructions:

1. Click or Copy/Paste this URL to your web browser: https://qualitynet.webex.com
2. This should bring you to the QualityNet e-University Webpage.
3. Locate the event you wish to register for on June 21.
4. Click Register.
5. Enter the following: First Name, Last Name, Email, Confirmation Email, Phone, Title, Company, City, State, ZIP.
6. Click Submit.
7. Once approved, you will receive a confirmation email with the meeting information and the registration ID that will be used to log into the WebEx portion of the meeting. Please note, this e-mail may go to your spam or junk folder. It will come from the email address messenger@webex.com.

Please join the event 15 minutes prior to the start time to ensure the automatic system set-up has been properly established.

WebEx Instructions:

1. Click or Copy and Paste this URL to your web browser: https://qualitynet.webex.com
2. This should bring you to the QualityNet e-University Webpage.
3. Locate the event you wish to join and click Join (located to the right of the event title).
4. Enter your registration ID as prompted. If the text boxes and “Join Now” button are inactive, refresh your Web browser.
5. Enter the password: SPACE
6. The automatic system set-up should start at this point. If a dialogue box appears, click run. Please note, the automatic system set-up does take a few minutes to complete.
7. Dial in to the teleconference:
a. Teleconference Number: (800) 747-5150
b. Access Code: 2323667#

All interested stakeholders are welcome, so please feel free to share this information.

If you have any questions, please contact:
MELODY BROWN, MSM, Task Lead, Performance Management
Alliant Quality, the QIN-QIO for Georgia and North Carolina
Melody.Brown@area-F.hcqis.org
(229) 624-2051

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The updated List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) database file, which reflects all OIG exclusions and reinstatement actions up to, and including, those taken in May 2017 has been posted. The updated files are posted on OIG’s Web site at http://www.oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/exclusions_list.asp, and healthcare providers have an “affirmative duty” to check to ensure that excluded individuals are not working in their facilities or face significant fines.

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Alliant Quality wants to encourage SNFs to keep signing up for the National Collaborative – or SPACE. Alliant recommends having as much time as possible to get started on Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) work and improving facility quality measures in a systems approach to improve their five star and composite scores.

Alliant Quality is the Medicare Quality Innovation Network (QIN)-Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for North Carolina. Under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Alliant Quality invites your nursing home to participate in a collaborative designed to ensure that every nursing home resident receives the highest quality of care.

The Collaborative offers an exciting opportunity to learn from high performing nursing homes regarding their processes as they pertain to consistent/permanent staff assignment, teamwork and communications, leadership, regulatory compliance, clinical models, and quality of life indicators. The Collaborative aligns national nursing home quality initiatives and partnerships such as the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign, The Partnership to Improve Dementia Care, and QAPI. Targeted focus areas will include increasing mobility, decreasing unnecessary use of antipsychotics in residents with dementia, decreasing potentially avoidable hospitalizations and decreasing healthcare acquired infections and conditions.

To register, click here for the Participation Agreement and fax or e-mail it back to Lisa Klemis, contact information is on the Participation Agreement. For more details, e-mail Leighann Sauls at Leighann.Sauls@area-F.hcqis.org or call (919) 745-4730.

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Alliant Quality, the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for North Carolina is seeking central North Carolina skilled nursing facilities interested in collaborating on the Special Innovation Project (SIP) Improving Access to Palliative Care in the Long Term Care Facility.

Palliative care focuses on comfort and improving quality of life. A team of professionals helps residents and families navigate through the health care system and make health care decisions that are right for them. Goals of this project not only include providing quality of life and satisfaction for residents of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), but also provision of services that minimize risks of potentially avoidable transfers to acute care.

Often, nursing home residents lack advance directives that would assist them at the end of life. When a resident, without an advanced directive, suffers a worsening of their clinical condition, a cascade of care is put into motion and can trigger unwanted emergency room visits and admissions, which can lead to other complications. The provision of palliative care services for SNF residents supports person-directed care in a proactive way to honor the patient and their choices.

Alliant Quality, in partnership with SNFs and palliative care organizations, will develop customized education and learning sessions for SNF leaders to better understand palliative care and its beneficial role for the residents whom they are caring for each day. This educational offering will be pilot-tested in central North Carolina with SNFs who are interested in this Special Innovation Project offered through the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.

Participating SNFs will have the opportunity to:

• Receive free training programs designed to improve their SNF staff competency and knowledge related to end-of-life care
• Join a learning network with experts on palliative care in the SNF setting
• Partner with palliative care providers in order to improve the quality of life of their residents
• Implement low-burden measurement strategies that monitor resident and family satisfaction with end-of-life care
• Improve rates of avoidable acute care transfers and hospital admission and readmission rates

For more information, contact:
Jennifer Judson RN, BSN
Project Lead, Palliative Care
Office: (678) 527-3473
Jennifer.Judson@alliantquality.org

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It’s here and it’s hot! This year’s AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo Preliminary Program is now available on-line! You can even read it on your mobile devices. Take a look at what Las Vegas has in store for you October 15-18, 2017 in this easy-to-access, easy-to-read flip book.

This year’s Convention & Expo offers national keynote speakers, valuable education, professional networking and exciting exhibits staffed with experts ready to help your company excel. The Gala Dinner & Show (separate ticketed event) is going to be a fantastic night of music, food, and fun that you will remember long after the Las Vegas night ends with Huey Lewis and the News headlining! Register early and save! Early bird registration and savings continue through July 21.

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This book offers CNAs the support of trained and experienced mentors to guide their way as they develop into quality health care professionals. Implementing this program can help you reduce your facility’s CNA turnover rate, save money and build a more competent staff. You’ll have happier residents and a higher quality facility as a result!

To order, visit http://www.AHCApublications.org or call (800) 321-0343. Fax orders may also be placed at (800) 869-5605.

Product #6706
AHCA MEMBERS $59.95

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This brochure outlines what physical restraints are, when they should be used, rules and regulations concerning restraints, and making decisions about using them. To order, e-mail your request to Donna Snyder at donnas@nchcfa.org.

• NCHCFA Member: $30.00 per 100 brochures plus tax and shipping
• Non-Members: $60.00 per 100 brochures plus tax and shipping

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Standing up for the camel — and your staff

http://www.mcknights.com/things-i-think/standing-up-for-the-camel-and-your-staff/article/665847

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The shrimp consumption in Las Vegas is over 60,000 pounds per day, higher than the rest of the nation combined.

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