UPDATE Weekly

NCHCFA has exceeded its block of rooms at the Embassy Suites Resort for the 5th Annual Summer Symposium. NCHCFA is working with the hotel to secure a few additional rooms for our event. Please call the Association office at (919) 782-3827 as soon as possible if you need an overnight reservation. NCHCFA will do our best to accommodate all attendees for the event within the hotel properties!

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Palmetto GBA will host the JM Part A Ask the Contractor Teleconference (ACT) on July 21, 2016, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM ET. This call is intended for Part A providers billing for services rendered in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The ACT call is designed to open the communication channels between Palmetto GBA and the Jurisdiction M Part A provider community.

To participate on the call, dial (877) 789-3907 and use confirmation code 70010766.

You are encouraged to submit questions prior to the call. Just fill out the ACT Request for Inquiry Items Form located in the Forms Web page. This form may be sent via fax to (803) 935-0140 addressed to JM Part A Ask-the-Contractor Teleconference. All questions must be received at least five business days prior to the teleconference. To help ensure your access to this conference call Palmetto asks that you dial in five to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

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Register today to attend the Fifth Annual NCHCFA Summer Symposium August 9-11, 2016 at the Embassy Suites Resort at Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC for the most up to date information affecting long term care. You can register and pay on-line. Visit http://NursingHomesNC.com & click on Fifth Annual Summer Symposium Registration! Administrators and registered nurses will be able to earn up to 11.5 hours of continuing education. Early registration ends July 22, 2016!

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On July 1st the North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association’s Board of Directors announced the appointment of Adam Sholar as President and General Counsel. Before joining the Association in late 2015 Adam served as Legislative Counsel and Director of Government Affairs for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Craig Souza will remain as the Association’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Craig has been President and Chief Executive Officer of NCHCFA since 1977.

NCHCFA STAFF

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The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association would like to thank our 2016 Summer Symposium Corporate Sponsors for supporting the upcoming Fifth Annual Summer Symposium in Myrtle Beach, SC! We appreciate your support: Blue Ridge Pharmacy, Healthcare Services Group, Liberty Healthcare Group, Medipack Pharmacy, NH Med Services, QMX Mobile Health & Southern Pharmacy Services.

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Do not miss the NCHCFA Day at the Beach – Volleyball & Corn Hole Tournament on Wednesday, August 10th. Join your colleagues on the beach for an afternoon of fun! Represent your district in the NCHCFA Volleyball Tournament. Challenge the NCHCFA staff and Board of Directors in the quest for the Chairman’s Cup. If you are not set on volleyball, get a team together for the Corn Hole Tournament or a friendly game of horseshoes. Sponsors will provide snacks, beverages and prizes.

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Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Fire Safety Requirements for Certain Health Care Facilities that requires healthcare facilities to migrate from using the 2000 edition of NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code® to the 2012 edition. The new requirements also mandates direct compliance with the 2012 edition of NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, for the first time. Click on the following links for additional information on these items:

• NFPA 101: Life Safety Code
• NFPA 99: Health Care Facilities Code

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This is part of a series featuring one element of the Building Prevention Into Every Day Practice: Framework for Successful Clinical Outcomes.

Success in achieving positive resident/patient outcomes is even more critical now than ever before. The link between quality and payment in long term and post-acute care is growing stronger, as evidenced by the SNF Value Based Purchasing Program (VBP), Improving Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act, SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and more.

In addition, regulatory activity is intensifying through focused surveys on adverse events, dementia care and the Minimum Data Set (MDS). The Five-Star Rating system and Nursing Home Compare have been revised and will add items in the future as it broadens public reporting and transparency. Most importantly, consumers expect and deserve high quality care.

The entire framework outlines key elements from both an organizational and clinical nature that are critical to successful outcomes. Positively, these elements reflect common denominators that cross multiple care situations. Therefore, instead of being yet another initiative or single focused project to achieve just one outcome, it is a way of acting, thinking and being that will benefit multiple areas across an organization. Each element is addressed in detail throughout the framework.

This week we will feature the element of Clinical Foundation: Effective Monitoring

Key Takeaways: Effective Monitoring

 Effective monitoring is key to refining and improving processes and performance.
 Effective monitoring requires gathering enough details to be able to draw appropriate conclusions.
 Effective monitoring is important for system integrity.

Probing Questions for Team Reflection and Discussion:

1. How do we know if the monitoring systems and processes in our center are optimal?
2. How do we know if we are effectively monitoring? What outcomes do we expect?
3. Are the monitoring systems and processes dependent on an individual? If so, do we have a plan to continue monitoring if that individual is absent?

Visit the AHCA Clinical Practice Web site to learn more about the element of “Clinical Foundation: Effective Monitoring” and answers to these key questions:

What does this mean? Why is this important? What are some examples? What is my part (as an individual employee, manager or practitioner)? What can my organization do?

Start somewhere, pick one element and work through it with your team.

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We are almost two weeks into the first quarter under the Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) reporting requirements. Providers who are not prepared for the required reporting, should get there as soon as possible. The American Health Care Association (AHCA) has several PBJ resources which can be accessed by clicking here.

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The List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) has been updated to reflect changes made in June 2016. For additional information on the LEIE and to access this updated information, click here.

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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) improvement 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.

When ready 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 Jennifer Brock at Jennifer.Brock@area-F.hcqis.org or call (678) 527-3417.

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There is a powerful lineup of speakers for the AHCA/NCAL 67th Annual Convention & Expo! During the opening session, don’t miss author, expert, and futurist in the field of Demography and Generational Marketing, Kenneth W. Gronbach. Kenneth uses wit, humor, and common sense as he forecasts societal, cultural, and political phenomena with uncanny accuracy.

During the closing general session, don’t miss co-author of the New York Times best seller In an Instant, Lee Woodruff! Lee chronicles her family’s journey to recovery following her husband Bob’s roadside bomb injury in Iraq and helped put a face on the serious issue of traumatic brain injury among returning war veterans, as well as the millions who live with this often invisible, but life-changing affliction. She will also share her personal insights as a caregiver.

To hear them, and register for the AHCA/NCAL 67th Annual Convention & Expo visit http://www.AHCAconvention.org! Get maximum savings when you register before the early bird deadline of July 22nd!

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Developed to fill a widely-recognized gap in management and leadership skills needed to improve the quality of long term care, this resource is based around learning modules that were site-tested in three types of long term care settings and revised based on the resulting feedback.

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

Product #8398
AHCA MEMBERS $85.00

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This DVD, 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, 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 accompany each video and may be reproduced. To order, e-mail your request to Donna Snyder at donnas@nchcfa.org. The price is $35.00 (tax and shipping included).

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Measure First, Then Manage

http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2016_Archives/Pages/0716/Measure-First-Then-Manage.aspx

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A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. Quarters have 119.

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