UPDATE Weekly

Make plans today to join your colleagues for the third annual NCHCFA Summer Symposium. The three-day event will be August 5-7, 2014 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 “NHF” to identify yourself as a NC Health Care Facilities Association Convention attendee! To make your reservation on-line, visit http://tinyurl.com/2014symposiumreserve.

Please note that when our room block is full, rooms will be on a first come, first served basis at prevailing published rates. Please call the Association office at (919) 782-3827 with any questions. Brochures will be mailed to members in June!

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TMF Health Quality Institute, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contractor responsible to produce and distribute the Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) for various professional groups, including skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), has just announced a WebEX entitled The SNF Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) on May 8, 2014, at 3:00 PM ET. The WebEX will focus on:

1. Updates for the new SNF PEPPER, summarizing statistics for FYs 2011-2013
2. New method for accessing the 2014 SNF PEPPER via the Secure PEPPER Access portal on http://PEPPERresources.com

Registration is not required to join the event. Simply click on https://tmfpepper.webex.com/tmfpepper/onstage/g.php?d=924457628&t=a about 15 minutes prior to the start time of the WebEX. The event number is 924 457 628 and the event password is flower. AHCA has advocated strongly for this process and is pleased that CMS is making this change.

Currently, the SNF PEPPERs are scheduled for release on May 5, 2014; however, TMF will send an e-mail to announce the formal release when the SNF PEPPERs are available to access. To receive this e-mail, join the e-mail list at http://PEPPERresources.org. SNFs do not have to register to receive a PEPPER report; however, TMF shared the following specific information:

• Access to the SNF PEPPER will be restricted to the provider’s Chief Executive Officer, President or Administrator. Note: Corporate offices and/or facility management companies will need to obtain PEPPERs from each individual provider in their organization.
• Requestors will be required to enter their 6-digit CMS certification number (also referred to as a provider number or PTAN) (third digit of “5” or “6” for SNFs). This is *not* the same number as the tax identification number or national provider identification number.
• For verification purposes, requestors will be required to enter either a Patient Control Number (form locator 03a on the UB04 claim form) *or* a Medical Record Number (form locator 03b on the UB04 claim form) for a patient who received services at the provider during September 2013 (“from” or “through” date is between September 1-30, 2013). Note: If providers use only letters in both of these fields they must contact TMF to request assistance. Patient names cannot be entered due to patient privacy laws.

If you have individual or specific questions regarding the 2014 PEPPER reports, please visit PEPPERresources.org to submit questions.

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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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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 which focuses 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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Keep people with dementia fully engaged in daily life and help them maximize remaining functional skills by tapping into their innate abilities and interests. Engaging and Communicating with People Who Have Dementia is a trove of advice on how to identify people’s strengths and preferences and then use this knowledge to improve activity programming, communication, and functional independence.

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

Product # 8311
AHCA Members (on-line price) $44.95

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Mobility and Safe Movement of the Elderly, Improving Your Skills to Prevent Injuries and Reduce Falls, by Teepa Snow, MS, OTR/L., FOTA, Dementia Care & Training Specialist. This DVD was developed in conjunction with Wake Allied Health Education Center, Durham Technical Community College and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Office of Information Systems. The content is formatted in separate segments in order to customize the delivery of content to your learning objective. Handouts developed by Teepa may be reproduced and accompany each video. To order, contact Jan Williams at janw@nchcfa.org.

• $35.00 (tax and shipping included)

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Five Tips for Successful Tech Adoption:

http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2014_Archives/Pages/0414/Five-Tips-For-Successful-Tech-Adoption-.aspx?PF=1

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Abraham Lincoln’s wrestling exploits earned him an “Outstanding American” honor in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was defeated only once in approximately 300 matches.

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