UPDATE Weekly

It is time once again to acknowledge front line, unlicensed personnel who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the long term care profession. This awards program honors individuals who are the backbone in our facilities because of the support they provide to our residents. A panel of judges from the Education and Programs Committee will select a Nurse Aide winner from each of NCHCFA’s five districts. In addition, one recipient, in a non-nursing discipline, will receive the Riley W. Clapp Outstanding Service Award. Each of the award recipients will be honored at the Annual Awards Gala during the Annual Convention and Expo on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 in Greensboro, NC.

To complete nominations on-line or to obtain additional forms, visit the Member Center of the Association Web site at http://www.NursingHomesNC.com. Click on “News & Updates”, select “2018 NCHCFA Annual Awards Packet” and choose “Survey Monkey”. If you have any questions about the Annual Awards, call the Association office at (919) 782-3827. Click here to download and print the brochure. Click here to print the nomination forms. Nominations received in the Association office after Friday, October 20, 2017 will not be considered.

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In the final Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made an array of calculation errors. The FY 2018 SNF PPS – Final Rule Correction Notice corrects technical errors related to the wage index and budget neutrality factor provided in the final rule that determined the skilled nursing facility Medicare rates that became effective October 1, 2017. Impacts on facilities are likely to be minimal but will vary based on patient case mix and Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSA).

In developing the wage index to be applied to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) under the SNF prospective payment system (PPS), CMS uses the updated, pre-reclassified hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) wage data, exclusive of the occupational mix adjustment. In calculating the wage index under the FY 2018 IPPS final rule, CMS made inadvertent errors related to the wage data collected from the Medicare cost reports of six hospitals. The use of the corrected wage data for the six hospitals required the recalculation of the final FY 2018 SNF PPS wage indexes. Additionally, CMS is required to apply the wage index in a manner that does not result in aggregate payments under the SNF PPS that are greater or less than would otherwise be made if the wage index adjustment had not been made. To achieve this, CMS applies a budget neutrality factor to the unadjusted SNF PPS federal per diem base rates. Due to the recalculation and subsequent revision of the final FY 2018 SNF PPS wage indexes, it was necessary to recalculate the FY 2018 SNF PPS wage index budget neutrality factor as well.

The American Health Care Association will be updating their Medicare SNF PPS Rate calculator tool to reflect the changes CMS has made to the SNF PPS rates. It is expected to be released within the next week.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin posting public use files of providers’ Payroll Based Journaling (PBJ) data on November 1, 2017.

The first public use file to be posted will cover data submitted by nursing homes for the first two quarters in calendar year 2017, which were due on May 15th and August 14th. The file will include the total number of hours submitted for jobs in the nursing services job categories for each day of the quarter. The census for each provider will be included in the data.

Posting the staffing information will “ensure transparency of the data submitted” and allow for viewing by providers and the public, CMS said. The data will be available at https://data.cms.gov.

CMS’ memo also stated that the agency will continue to post indicators on Nursing Home Compare to show whether providers have submitted their staffing data. Those indicators may undergo an update to “encourage more complete and accurate submissions,” the memo reads. CMS also plans to replace the staffing measures used in the Five-Star rating system and the Nursing Home Compare with PBJ data sometime in 2018.

Click here to read the full memo from CMS, which also includes information on changing employee identifiers and PBJ resident census.

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The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association will present a full-day session on the following important topics with Cindy Deporter, MSSW, State Survey Agency Director, Division of Health Service Regulations (DHSR).

• New Interpretative Guidelines
• The second phase of the Requirements of Participation (RoP) to be implemented by November 28, 2017
• CMS’ intent to implement, as well as an overview of, the New Survey Process which is scheduled for implementation on November 28, 2017

**Please note that Ms. Deporter presented a shorter session on the above content at our recent Summer Symposium. This will be a more comprehensive, full day session.

We will conclude this session with a one hour presentation by Polly Welsh, Executive Vice President of the NC Health Care Facilities Association, that will focus on staff interface with the new RoP and the Survey Process. We have confirmed the following dates and locations to choose from. Click here to register on-line now. Click here to download and print the brochure and registration form.

October 26th, 2017 – Embassy Suites, Concord, NC
November 2nd, 2017 – Sheraton Imperial Hotel, Durham, NC
November 9th, 2017 – Hilton Greenville, Greenville, NC

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The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association will be presenting this workshop to our members for the fourth time and now in the western part of the state. Servant leadership is a set of behaviors and practices that turn the traditional “power leadership” model upside down; instead of the people working to serve the leader, the leader exists to serve the people. When leaders shift their mindset and serve first, they unlock purpose and ingenuity in those around them, resulting in higher performance and engaged, fulfilled employees. As servant leaders, your purpose is to inspire and equip those you influence.

The goal of this workshop is to provide attendees with information and tools that are relevant, transformative, memorable, and actionable. You will learn and practice execution of the most critical skills needed for leading by serving first. You will come out of this course feeling energized and have a number of tools and skills you can start to apply immediately to empower your teams.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Lead This Way?
• Top Skills of Servant Leaders
• Practical Tips for Shifting to Servant Leadership
• Creating a Shared Vision and Getting Engagement
• Leading Through Change

This workshop will be Tuesday, October 24th in Asheville, NC. It will be facilitated by Mark Gogal, a Human Resources Leader with over 25 years of progressive, global, and diverse human resources experience, practical business partnering expertise, strong organizational and analytical skills, and proven strategic management experience. He has a multi-faceted background in developing and implementing core HR policies/practices to meet the changing business, legal, and labor compliance environment. He has worked in a variety of industries in the public and private sectors including healthcare.

Mark is an enthusiastic, energetic, and passionate leader and presenter who truly enjoys developing others to reach their fullest potential both professionally and personally.

For the complete brochure and registration information, click here.

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If your facility has achieved the AHCA Bronze Award for its commitment to quality, it may be time to apply for the Silver Award. In this two-day workshop, you will walk through the application process and apply the criteria to your organization. At the end of the workshop, participants will have the framework for the Silver AHCA/NCAL Quality Award application.

Learning Objectives

• Translate your Bronze application into a Silver Organizational Profile
• Understand the structure and demands of the Silver Quality Award criteria
• Learn how examiners will use key evaluation tools to score your application and how you write to meet the demands of these tools
• Develop an outline to address the basic demands of the Silver criteria and key systems to either describe or develop your application
• Discover effective strategies to avoid the four most common application mistakes

This workshop will be presented November 7th – 8th at the Association office in Raleigh, NC. Click here for more information and to download and print the brochure with registration form.

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The brochure for potential trade associate members and exhibitors at EXPO 2018 will be available this week. Do you have a favorite supplier you think might be interested in participating? If so, now is the time to have them contact Donna Snyder at donnas@nchcfa.org or by phone at (919) 782-3827 to get on the mailing list. The trade show will be held on Tuesday, January 30th during our Annual Convention and Expo in Greensboro, NC.

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Our recent seminar on September 26th in Greensboro, NC, titled Coding Accuracy With a Special Presentation on Baseline Care Planning was sold out. For those unable to attend, we have scheduled another class on November 16th in Durham. Judy Wilhide Brandt will be back again with this same presentation. Brochures will be mailed within the next few weeks for the November session.

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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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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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Challenging times call for bold leadership

http://www.providermagazine.com/reports/Pages/2017/Challenging-times-call-for-bold-leadership.aspx

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Pumpkins are technically fruit. More specifically, they are a winter squash in the family Cucurbitacae, which includes cucumbers and melons. But because they’re savory, many people just call them vegetables anyway.

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