Documentation Power Tools
25 years experience in long term care
Documentation Power Tools
25 years experience in long term care |
|
|
LTCS Newsletter News Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Spell of Illness Quick Reference Chart Provides Medicare claims processing information related to SNF spells of illness. Now available in downloadable format from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Learning Network at: www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/snfspellillnesschrt.pdf. How Universal Health Care Coverage Would Work Health care for all, an elusive goal that has tantalized presidents and governors for decades, is roaring back this year with ambitious proposals in a handful of prominent states. Yahoo Health News Article Articles Take a Look at Your Facility from a Family Member’s Perspective CMS’s public consumer web site Nursing Home Compare does much more than just publish the performance and last survey results of every facility in America. Tools and checklists are provided for evaluating nursing homes after a tour. Would your facility pass the inspection? Find out using the checklist. Medicare.gov: Nursing Home Checklist Pet Therapy – Healing, Recovery, and Love Researchers are finding that pets truly have the power to heal, especially with the elderly. Pawprints and Purrs Article Occupational Stress in Nursing "If you wanted to create the optimum environment for the manufacture of stress, many of the factors you would include would be clearly recognized by nursing staff as events which they encounter in their daily routine. These include an enclosed atmosphere, time pressures, excessive noise or undue quiet, sudden swings from intense to mundane tasks, no second chance, unpleasant sights and sounds, and standing for long hours." Nursing Matters Article Links Focus on Volunteer Nursing: Volunteers in Medicine Institute The mission of VIMI is to promote and guide the development of a national network of free clinics emphasizing the use of retired medical and lay volunteers to care for the "working uninsured" within a culture of caring so that everyone in a community has access to health care. LTCS Newsletter News Revised Restraints Regulations Effective February 6, 2007 The recent CMS revisions specify restraint procedures for the management of violent or self-destructive behavior that jeopardizes the immediate physical safety of the patient, a staff member, or others. Also addressed are staff training, documentation, and death reporting requirements. Full Revised Restraints Regulations Articles Doctors Sent to Penmanship Classes Long winked at as a harmless peccadillo, poor penmanship among health care providers is increasingly being diagnosed as a threat to patients. Now, some of them are being sent back to school in hopes of eliminating the illegible. Such chicken scratch can become a prescription for tragedy. Experts say up to 25 percent of medication errors may be related to illegible handwriting. CNN Article Heartburn Drugs Raise Risk Of Hip Fractures Long-term use of popular anti-heartburn drugs that block stomach acid production increases the risk of hip fractures in adults over 50, perhaps because the drugs inhibit calcium absorption, researchers said on Tuesday.Full Article
Brain Training Can Have Lasting Benefits Brief sessions of brain exercise can have long-lasting benefits for elderly people, helping them stay mentally fit for at least five years, one of the most rigorous tests of the "use-it-or-lose-it" theory suggests. Yahoo Health ArticleLinks Memory Matters Recognition and management of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in the skilled nursing facility. Lots of useful articles and resources. Age-Related Macular Degeneration National Eye Institute page – definition, symptoms, treatments LTCS Newsletter Articles The New Revised Guidance for Medications The med pass is a labor-intensive activity that consumes a good part of a nursing home nurse's day. A number of homes have reduced their med pass and found that in doing so, they are more able to individualize care for residents. Here are some tips from their experiences. News Safety Alert for Effexor The FDA has released a safety alert and dosage precautions for Effexor. MedWatch Article CMS Proposes to Require All Nursing Homes to Install SprinklersNursing homes across America would, for the first time, have to install sprinkler systems throughout their buildings if they wish to continue to serve Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, under a new regulation proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today. CMS Releases New Draft Version of MDS 3.0 New Draft MDS 3.0 7/31/06 (pdf) This new draft contains much more information than the previous one. The form is preceded by several pages of explanatory text. It is more specific about which sections will be changed or will remain the same. CMS Updated MDS 3.0 Page - More information on the progressing development of MDS 3.0 and its timeline. Links Dementia Care Practice Recommendations
New ICD-9-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting (pdf)Mental Assessment Tool form Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs (pdf)
The Center for Nursing Advocacy Seeks to increase public understanding of the central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care. The focus of the Center is to promote more accurate, balanced and frequent media portrayals of nurses and increase the media's use of nurses as expert sources. The Center's ultimate goal is to foster growth in the size and diversity of the nursing profession at a time of critical shortage, strengthen nursing practice, teaching and research, and improve the health care system.
|
Long Term Care Solutions
Phone: 877-881-2404
www.LTCSBooks.com