UPDATE Weekly

NCHCFA is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Nurse Aide of the Year Awards and the 2017 Riley W. Clapp Outstanding Service Award! Individuals will be recognized in Greensboro, NC during the Annual Convention and Expo.

District I Nurse Aide of the Year
Mary “Libby” Tallent – Grace Heights Health & Rehabilitation Center

District II Nurse Aide of the Year
Dianna Franklin – Autumn Care of Cornelius

District III Nurse Aide of the Year
Ida King – Peak Resources / Alamance

District IV Nurse Aide of the Year
Marie Cheeks – Quail Haven Village

District V Nurse Aide of the Year
Becky Whitson – Hunter Hills Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

2017 Riley W. Clapp Outstanding Service Award
Kelly Boyette – Southwood Nursing & Retirement Center

Make plans today to attend the 2017 Association Awards Celebration on Tuesday, February 28th for a very special evening! Brochures outlining specific program details will be available soon. Be a part of this special evening and join in recognizing the NCHCFA 2017 Special Award recipients. Providers, vendors and community representatives will unite to honor excellence in our profession. Register today so you do not miss this extraordinary event with Mentalist Oz Pearlman!

Oz is a world-class entertainer and one of the busiest mentalists in the country. He developed an interest in magic at a young age and what started as a hobby quickly became a lifelong passion. After a couple of years spent working on Wall Street, Oz decided to pursue his dream and become a full time entertainer. He has now been dazzling audiences with his unique mind-reading ability for over a decade. Oz’s Client list reads like a who’s who of politicians, professional athletes, A-list celebrities, and Fortune 500 companies.

Brochures outlining specific program details will be available soon. To view the tentative agenda click below:

http://nursinghnc.webfactional.com/files/2016/12/2017_CoventionAgenda-12072016.pdf

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The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association would like to thank our 2017 Gold Convention Hosts for supporting the upcoming Annual Convention & Expo. Be sure to visit Blue Ridge Pharmacy at booths 425 & 524, Medipack Pharmacy at booths 315 & 414, and NH Med Services at booths 415 & 514 on Tuesday, February 28th during EXPO 2017 – Mardi Gras – Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler.

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Make your overnight reservations today for the NCHCFA Annual Convention and Expo February 26 – March 1, 2017 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel at Four Seasons/Joseph S. Koury Convention Center, Greensboro, NC. Call the Sheraton at (800) 242-6556 and identify that you are with “NC Health Care Facilities Association 2017 Convention” to receive the group discounted rate.

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Registration limit has been reached, but a cancel list has been created. This workshop is an interactive, dynamic, developmental session focusing on what it truly means to serve others as a leader. Discuss what employees, customers, and others truly need from leaders. Learn how to operate most effectively in a leadership role using Servant Leadership core principles.

Based on the James Hunter book, “The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership”, Servant Leadership is a set of behaviors and practices that turn the traditional “power leadership” model upside down; instead of the people working to serve the leader, the leader exists to serve the people. The goal of this workshop is to provide attendees with information and tools that are relevant, transformative, memorable, and actionable.

Some of the most successful companies, known for their positive and effective culture, develop and promote Servant Leadership. These include Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Chick-Fil-A, SAS, and Nordstrom. Servant Leadership was found to have a significant effect on employee commitment.

This style of leadership is strongly correlated to employee satisfaction and, a considerable body of research has illustrated that Servant Leadership is associated with a variety of favorable employee outcomes, including:

• Improved psychological well-being
• Favorable job attitudes
• Improved job performance
• Decreased workplace deviance

This seminar will be facilitated by Mark Gogal, a Human Resources Leader with over 25 years of progressive, global, and diverse human resources experience, practical business partnering expertise, strong organizational and analytical skills, and proven strategic management experience. He has a multi-faceted background in developing and implementing core HR policies/practices to meet the changing business, legal and labor compliance environment. He has worked in a variety of industries in the public and private sectors including healthcare.

Mark is an enthusiastic, energetic, and passionate leader and presenter who truly enjoys developing others to reach their fullest potential both professionally and personally.

Although registration is now closed, NCHCFA will accept registrations for those interested in being added to the cancellation list. For the complete brochure and to add your name to the cancellation list, click here. NCHCFA is also working to schedule a second workshop after the 2017 Convention and Expo.

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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) 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 Leighann Sauls at Leighann.Sauls@area-F.hcqis.org or call (919) 745-4730.

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Every year the Nursing Home Licensure and Certification Section offers training for MDS coding. The classes are provided quarterly at the Black Mountain and Raleigh offices. Each MDS Coding class is one full day. Additionally, there is a half-day session dedicated to Care Area Assessments & Care Planning.

Dates for the trainings can be found at http://www2.ncdhhs.gov/dhsr/nhlcs/training.html
Click on a date to make a reservation.

Staff completing any portions of the MDS should always have access to a current RAI Manual for guidance and it is suggested that attendees bring an electronic or hard copy of the manual to the training. The RAI Manual version 1.14 (10-2016) is available by clicking
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/NursingHomeQualityInits/MDS30RAIManual.html

Other helpful training can be found at
http://surveyortraining.cms.hhs.gov/index.aspx
Click on “I AM A PROVIDER” and then click “WEBCASTS”

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: This training is for Long Term Care facilities (SNF/NF) or Swing Bed hospital personnel who are actively involved with the completion of the Minimum Data Set (MDS) as well as Directors of Nursing (DON) and Administrators.
Space is limited so reservations are limited to two individuals per facility per quarter.

OVERVIEW: Participants will be provided with practical knowledge that will enable them to implement the MDS 3.0 as part of the RAI, and correctly code each section of the MDS 3.0 assessments.
Manual updates will also be reviewed.

COST: These training sessions are free of charge. Coffee and water are provided throughout the training. Directions to local restaurants will be provided where attendees can purchase lunch.

For questions, please contact:

Mary Maas, RN, MSN
RAI Clinical Coordinator
Division of Health Service Regulation
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
919-855-4554 office
919-733-8274 fax
Mary.Maas@dhhs.nc.gov

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Alliant Quality, the QIN-QIO (Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization) for North Carolina is seeking central North Carolina skilled nursing facilities interested in collaborating on the Special Innovation Project (SIP) Improving Access to Palliative Care in the Long Term Care Facility.

Palliative care focuses on comfort and improving quality of life. A team of professionals helps residents and families navigate through the health care system and make health care decisions that are right for them. Goals of this project not only include providing quality of life and satisfaction for residents of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), but also provision of services that minimize risks of potentially avoidable transfers to acute care.

Often nursing home residents lack advance directives that would assist them at the end of life. When a resident without an advanced directive suffers a worsening of their clinical condition a cascade of care is put into motion and can trigger unwanted emergency room visits and admissions, which can cause other complications. The provision of palliative care services for SNF residents supports person-directed care in a proactive way to honor the patient and their choices.

Alliant Quality, in partnership with SNFs and palliative care organizations, will develop customized education and learning sessions for SNF leaders to better understand palliative care and its beneficial role for the residents whom they are caring for each day. This educational offering will be pilot-tested in central North Carolina with SNFs who are interested in this Special Innovation Project offered through the Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services.

Participating SNFs will have the opportunity to:

• Receive free training programs designed to improve their SNF staff competency and knowledge related to end-of-life care
• Join a learning network with experts on palliative care in the SNF setting
• Partner with palliative care providers in order to improve the quality of life of their residents
• Implement low-burden measurement strategies that monitor resident and family satisfaction with end-of-life care
• Improve rates of avoidable acute care transfers and hospital admission and readmission rates

For more information, contact:
Jennifer Judson RN, BSN
Project Lead, Palliative Care
Office: 678-527-3473
Jennifer.Judson@alliantquality.org

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If you were unable to attend one of our sessions on the introduction to the new regulations, the notebook used in the training is now available for purchase (Polly Welsh’s powerpoint presentation). Email Donna Snyder to order a notebook for your facility at donnas@nchcfa.org. The cost is $25.00 plus tax and shipping.

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This newly updated and revised book presents ready-to-use materials for planning, implementing, and evaluating cultural competence strategies and programs. Learn to identify the needs of diverse constituents, evaluate and assess cultural competence on a companion Web site.

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

Product #8173
AHCA MEMBERS $80.00

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Enhancing the value of LTC by making family visits more rewarding

http://www.mcknights.com/the-world-according-to-dr-el/enhancing-the-value-of-ltc-by-making-family-visits-more-rewarding/article/580436/

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The first candy cane dates back to 1670 in Germany. According to holiday lore, a choirmaster distributed sugar sticks bent into the shape of a shepherds’ crook to quiet his young singers during Christmas services. Today more than 1.76 billion candy canes are made for the holidays, enough to stretch from Santa Claus, Indiana, to North Pole, Alaska, and back again 32 times.

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