UPDATE Weekly

NC Health Care Facilities Association presents RESTORING QUALITY SLEEP-IMPROVING RESIDENT CARE AND QUALITY OF LIFE. This seminar will be offered in Charlotte on April 23rd and again in Chapel Hill on April 24th and will be presented by Sue Ann Guildermann with Empira. This session will:

• Restate the key components of the Empira Fall Prevention program.
• Explain the process that leads to the Empira Restorative Sleep Vitality Program.
• Discuss the etiology of sleep and wake in human beings.
• Identify the key components of the Empira Restorative Sleep Vitality Program.
• Identify the top 10 disturbances to sleep.
• Provide five operational actions a long term care provider can do to prevent sleep disturbance.

The state survey agency was able to utilize CMP to have all LTC surveyors attend this training! DHHS supports this type of approach and care of residents in nursing homes as it is evidenced based and person-centered. These are the types of person-centered interventions and management that are encouraged and sustainable.

The cost to attend this seminar is $195 for members and $390 for non-members. This fee includes handouts, snacks, and lunch. YOU CAN REGISTER AND PAY ONLINE! TO REGISTER, GO TO http://NursingHomesNC.com AND CLICK ON RESTORING QUALITY SLEEP. You may also download a brochure. Members may be invoiced. Non-members must submit payment on-line or mail with registration. Registration is open to anyone who would like to attend!

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The NCTracks team will be offering another in-person Provider Help Center on April 22 in Hickory. NCTracks staff from provider enrollment, provider relations, claims, and prior approval will be available to assist NC providers with questions or concerns regarding NCTracks. No appointment is necessary. Providers will be assisted on a first come, first served basis.

For providers to get the most out of these sessions, please bring specific examples of issues. The more details that can be provided about the problems, such as screen shots, NPI numbers, TCNs (claim numbers), denial codes, etc., the more help the NCTracks team will be able to provide.

The Provider Help Center will be held on April 22 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM at the Catawba DSS, 3030 11th Avenue Dr. SE, Hickory, NC 28602.

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Beginning April 1, 2014, Medicare reclassified certain Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes from the inexpensive and routinely purchased payment category to the capped rental payment category. Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) should be aware of this change in Part B payment methodology that affects certain DME codes, including speech generating devices and complex rehabilitative manual wheelchairs. For more information on this change, including clarification on how it interacts with the SNF’s bundled Part A payment for a resident’s Medicare-covered stay, please see MLN Matters® Article MM8566.

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National Nursing Home Week® (NNHW), which begins on Mother’s Day, May 11 and ends May 17, 2014, is a special week in the year. This year’s theme revolves around the “Aloha Spirit” from the Hawaiian culture — it encompasses the qualities of being patient, kind, respectful, and compassionate. We hope you will join others during this week to honor and entertain everyone you serve, and the staffs that care for them! This special attention will make for a remarkable week, especially if you order NNHW-themed gear to spice up the festivities. Visit Facebook (http://www.Facebook.com/NursingHomeWeek). Be sure to post your favorite pictures to the Facebook page so others can enjoy your fun and creativity

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The NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators will offer the 2014 Preceptor Seminars on April 28-29, 2014 and April 29-30, 2014 at the Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC. You will need to choose the first seminar dates for Renewal Preceptor certification and the second seminar dates for Initial Preceptor Certification and Continuing Education Only. The seminars will be open to all nursing home administrators seeking continuing education credits and/or preceptor certification. This is the only Preceptor Seminar being planned for 2014 by the NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators.

Click here to download more information along with the registration form.

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At North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association, we recognize how important it is for our members to keep up-to-date on the most innovative training methods. We also realize the importance of offering you opportunities to make a difference in your ongoing quality efforts.

Therefore, we are offering a train-the-trainer program utilizing FutureCare NC’s human patient simulator. Nurse Educator, Mandy Richards, RN, MSN, will use a state of the art human patient simulator that displays real time patient diagnostics and disease symptomology. This seminar offers a one-time “train the trainer” human patient simulator session to member facilities and corporations. Simulation based learning curriculum helps train staff using scenarios ranging from SBAR communication practices, clinical skills and assessment enhancement to medication errors and pneumonia identification. The session is designed to highlight the benefits a facility may achieve through the use of human patient simulator learning to focus on the interactions and communication among nursing teams.

This will be an all-day training. Facilities and corporations will be able to register teams with 3 or 4 members with a max of 60 seats available. Teams must, at a minimum, include a RN, (the person identified as responsible with facility implementation) one Nurse Aide, and one LPN.

These groupings may also be composed of teams assigned by multi-facility management.

This seminar will be offered in Raleigh on June 4th.

Brochures will be mailed next week!

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Submissions are open for the 2014 AHCA Quality Initiative Recognition Program! Skilled nursing members have the opportunity to be recognized for demonstrating achievement of the AHCA Quality Initiative goals. Members have until Thursday, May 1, 2014 to submit their data qualifying them for recognition. All members recognized through the program will be honored at AHCA/NCAL’s 2015 Quality Symposium in Austin, Texas, and additional honors will be bestowed to those achieving multiple goals.

Learn more about the recognition levels, eligibility requirements and submission steps on AHCA’s Website. Please e-mail qualityinitiative@ahca.org with any questions about the Recognition Program.

While nursing centers do not need to submit data for their hospital readmissions and antipsychotic use, centers must submit staff turnover data and customer satisfaction results to AHCA by May 1, 2014.

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AHCA is conducting its annual, nationwide staffing survey to examine retention and turnover rates for nursing center employees. The 2013 Staffing Survey is open to all nursing centers in the U.S., which are asked to complete and return the survey by Thursday, May 1, 2014. Individual center and company responses to the survey will be kept confidential. Published results will appear in the aggregate form only. NCHCFA member centers that wish to be recognized for their nursing staff turnover results through AHCA/NCAL’s 2014 Quality Initiative Recognition Program must participate in the AHCA 2013 Staffing Survey. Submit your staffing data today!

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This book provides the theory, principles, methods, and tools for the nurse manager or leader of a long term care facility. It contains more than 150 guidelines, flow sheets, communication, assessment, and feedback procedures that can be implemented with little or no modification by directors of nursing in every type of long term care facility.

To order, visit http://www.AHCApublications.org or call (800) 321-0343.

Product #6746
AHCA MEMBERS $84.95

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Important information for residents and families This brochure outlines what physical restraints are, when they should be used, rules and regulations concerning restraints, and making decisions about using them. Contact Jan Williams at janw@nchcfa.org to order brochures for your facility.

• 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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Heartwarming video shows two grandmothers taking their first ever airplane flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD2NtzEPBcA

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There is a point in the middle of Chile’s Atacama Desert where rain has never been recorded. Scientists call this region “absolute desert”.

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