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The NC Health Care Facilities Association presents “Introduction to 2016 Requirements of Participation.” This session will provide a high-level overview of the more than 700-page final rule. There is a phase-in of the requirements and the training will focus on the portions of the rule that are in Phase One. Major emphasis in the requirements are focused on:

• Person-centered care
• Competency-based design of staff training and scheduling
• Care planning for Quality of Care and Quality of Life with emphasis on person-centered goals as well as involvement in decision-making
• Changing Patient Population to include behavioral health
• Focus on prevention of adverse events to include Medication Management, Quality Assurance and Assessment (QAPI) and Infection Prevention

To accomplish this, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added new requirements where necessary, eliminating duplicative or unnecessary provisions, and reorganizing the regulations as appropriate. Many of the revisions are aimed at aligning requirements with current clinical practice standards.

This information will be presented by Polly Welsh, RN-BC, MPH, Executive Vice President of the NC Health Care Facilities Association. This seminar will be offered in Raleigh on November 10th and again in Charlotte on November 15th. Click here to download a brochure/registration form. Click here to register on-line! Don’t wait! Register today!

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Have you nominated one or more of your front-line staff? What a great way to recognize and celebrate someone who makes a significant difference in the lives of your residents and their families. To nominate someone, please click here to submit on-line! You may also visit the homepage of our Web site at http://www.NursingHomesNC.com and click on the PDF form beside 2017 NCHCFA Annual Awards Nomination to download and print the nomination packet.

Pictures for nominations submitted online may be mailed to the Association office or may be e-mailed to karenl@nchcfa.org. Only one nomination may be submitted for each discipline, but we welcome nominations from more than one department of your facility.

The NEW deadline to receive completed nominations is Friday, October 28th. Please encourage your facility to participate in this special awards program.

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The American Health Care Association (AHCA) has taken the next step in its legal action against the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recently released Requirements of Participation (ROP) regulation. On October 24th, AHCA filed a preliminary injunction motion, and a memo supporting that motion, asking the court to bar the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from implementing the final rule prohibiting pre-dispute arbitration agreements in skilled nursing and nursing facilities.

The latest action comes after AHCA filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against Sylvia Mathews Burwell, U.S. secretary of HHS, and Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator for CMS, on October 17th. The complaint asks the court to find the arbitration provision in the final rule unlawful and also asks the court to stop the implementation date of the final arbitration regulation, allowing providers to continue to use pre-dispute arbitration agreements until the court makes a final determination on the merits of the case.

In the preliminary injunction motion, AHCA said that the new regulation would deprive skilled nursing and nursing facility residents and patients of the many benefits of arbitration, and it would impose serious financial burdens on skilled nursing and nursing facilities.

The implementation date of the final arbitration regulation is November 28th. AHCA hopes to push back this date when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Oxford Division, hears arguments related to the injunction on November 3rd. A ruling on the preliminary injunction is expected by November 7th. No matter the outcome, it is likely that one of the parties will appeal the injunction decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

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An audio recording and transcript are available for the October 5th call on Emergency Preparedness Requirements. During this call, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) discussed the new requirements in the final rule, as well as how to plan for both natural and man-made disasters, while coordinating with other emergency preparedness systems.

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Alliant Quality, the Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization for Georgia and North Carolina, is pleased to support North Carolina facilities in meeting the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) enrollment deadline to confer rights. All facilities participating in the National Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative for C. Difficile, must meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) requirement by October 30. Alliant highly encourages facilities to start this process as soon as possible, to ensure meeting the deadline! For hands-on, technical assistance, please contact: Nickie Graves RN, BA, MPA, CIC – Technical Advisor, Infection Prevention at (678) 527-3679 or sonya.graves@alliantquality.org.

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The AHCA Quality Award program has three progressive step levels. This seminar will cover the first level, Bronze – Commitment to Quality. Bronze Award applicants begin their quality journey by developing an organizational profile including vision and mission statements, an awareness of their environment and customers’ expectations, and a demonstration of their ability to improve a process.

This session, held November 30th at the NCHCFA office, includes a full day of training and consultation on how to complete the AHCA/NCAL Bronze Quality Award Application led by the Administrator of the Quality Award Program and a trained Quality Award Examiner and award recipient. This training will decipher the criteria, answer questions, clarify concepts, and guide participants through the process of writing an organizational quality award application. Using interactive technology, participants will leave the workshop with their applications complete or with few areas to fill in.

Objectives:

• Gain knowledge on the AHCA/NCAL Bronze National Quality Award Application Process
• Understand the technical requirements of the application process and recertification policy of the Awards Program
• Review and learn the Bronze Quality Award Criteria
• Develop the framework of a Quality Award Application

It is never too early to begin thinking about and planning your quality award application. This is an opportunity for you and your team to begin your quality journey by working together through the writing process. Get your application ready early and have plenty of time to fine tune it before the deadline.

For the complete brochure and registration information, click here.

SPACE IS LIMITED!

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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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This book covers 28 challenging cases that cover pivotal issues that most health care administrators and managers are likely to encounter at some point in their work – quality improvement, strategic planning, ethical dilemmas, organizational dynamics, cost-benefit analyses, resource utilization, and more. Providing an exceptional framework for decision-making and debate, Cases in Health Services Management is an outstanding casebook that provokes thought and discussion.

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

Product # 8248
AHCA Members (on-line price) $64.95

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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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How Pokémon GO Is Helping Seniors Recover from Injury

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2016-08-08/how-pokemon-go-is-helping-seniors-recover-from-injury

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Acorns were used as a coffee substitute during the American Civil War.

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