UPDATE Weekly

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) recently commended several members of Congress for reintroducing the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2017 (S.568/ H.R. 1421). Introduced by Congressmen Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) and Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the legislation ensures that time spent under “observation status” in a hospital counts toward satisfying the three-day inpatient hospital requirement for coverage of skilled nursing care services under Medicare.

“This bipartisan bill will help fix a confusing policy that continues to leave millions hanging with uncertainty regarding their access to the Medicare coverage they deserve,” said Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of AHCA. “The members of Congress that reintroduced this important legislation are advocates for our nation’s seniors and those individuals who need skilled nursing care. We applaud their efforts and support.”

For more information about the observation stays issue, please visit the AHCA Web site.

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The NCHCFA Annual Summer Symposium will be August 9-11, 2017 at the Embassy Suites Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC. Brochures outlining specific program information will be available in June.

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The leadership workshop NCHCFA held in January was so well received that we have decided to offer the session again on April 6, 2017. Empowerment Leadership for LTC is an interactive dynamic developmental session that focuses 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 the core principles of servant 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.

When leaders shift their mindset and serve first, they unlock purpose and ingenuity in those around them, resulting in higher performance and engaged, fulfilled employees. As servant leaders, your purpose is to inspire and equip those you influence.

Through this workshop, you will learn and practice execution of the most critical skills needed for leading by serving first. You will come out of this course feeling energized and have a number of tools and skills you can start to apply immediately to empower your teams.

What You’ll Learn
• Why Lead This Way?
• Top Skills of Servant Leaders
• Practical Tips for Shifting to Servant Leadership
• Creating a Shared Vision and Getting Engagement
• Leading Through Change

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.

For the complete brochure and registration information, click here.

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National Nursing Home Week® is May 14-20, 2017! AHCA’s 2017 National Nursing Home Week® (NNHW) specialty products are now available for purchase. This year’s theme with logo, The Spirit of America, is featured on many of the available items. This theme underscores the bond between staff, volunteers and residents that capture the American spirit. To purchase National Nursing Home week specialty products including posters, balloons, t-shirts, buttons, and more, shop on-line or call (800) 321-0343.

Members are encouraged to place orders early for best product selection (color, size, and available quantities). NNHW items are very popular and will sell out.

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During this call, learn about the Creating a Culture of Person-Directed Dementia Care project grant award. The Lake Superior Quality Innovation Network will share information about the new QAPI Written Plan How-To Guide that can assist long term care providers with performance improvement efforts. Additionally, CMS experts share updates on the progress of the National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes and Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI). A question and answer session follows the presentation.

Tuesday, March 21 from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM

To register or for more information, visit MLN Connects Event Registration.

Speakers:
Kathy Hagen, The Eden Alternative
Kristi Wergin, Lake Superior Quality Innovation Network
Michele Laughman and Debbie Lyons, CMS

Target Audience: Consumer and advocacy groups, nursing home providers, surveyor community, prescribers, professional associations, and other interested stakeholders.

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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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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 lead to 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 Centers 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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The AHCA education library is a living repository of tools and resources to help you navigate the Requirements of Participation. It contains an array of documents divided into three categories- Action Briefs, Tools, and Webinars.

• Action Briefs – provide highlights, specific information, tips and resources about a
particular topic
• Tools – are an instrument designed to assist you in implementing the requirement
• Webinars – are an array of communications from AHCA to assist you in learning and mastering the new requirements

Click here to view the AHCA library and return often to see the newest materials available.

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The NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators (NCBENHA) will offer the 2017 Preceptor Seminars on April 24-25, 2017 and April 25-26, 2017 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 2017 by NCBENHA. The deadline is April 14th! Register today!

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

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The American Health Care Association (AHCA) has started a series of Webinars to educate their members on the requirements of the emergency preparedness final rule. The first of the series was held on February 9th. The next Webinar in the education series has been scheduled for April 27th at 2:00 PM ET. Below is the registration link for the Webinar. The second link is a registration link for the entire Webinar series. All Webinars will be recorded and available the next day after the session.

To register for this event, click here.
To register for the series of Webinars, click here.

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Based on years of research, this practical guide illustrates the far-reaching benefits of empowered work teams in long term care organizations and explains in everyday terms how to implement the concept. The authors present a fully-validated model for introducing the empowered work team concept to direct care staff, gaining support from the administration, and supervising the teamwork process over time. Hands-on tools include assessment forms, staff training materials, and step-by-step implementation guidelines. Guidance and troubleshooting tips are provided in the resource’s final chapter. Facility and program administrators, directors of nursing, staff supervisors, and team leaders will find this guidebook an invaluable tool for nurturing a more effective and motivated staff and, as a result, an improved care environment.

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

Product #8250
AHCA MEMBERS $34.95

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This brochure outlines what physical restraints are, when they should be used, rules and regulations concerning restraints, and making decisions about using them. To order, e-mail your request to Donna Snyder at donnas@nchcfa.org.

• 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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Antibiotic Stewardship Takes A Village

http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2017_Archives/Pages/0117/Antibiotic-Stewardship-Takes-A-Village.aspx

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Originally, two teams of 9 players made up a basketball game, a number that was based on the standard number of players on a baseball team. Later, the teams were reduced to 5 players on the court.

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