• In October 2018, the long-stay hospitalization measure will be posted on the Nursing Home Compare website as a long-stay quality measure. In the spring of 2019, this quality measure will be included in the Five Star Quality Rating System.  Additionally, in July 2018 we will update the other claims-based quality measures reported on the Nursing Home Compare website.
  
• To increase transparency, CMS will begin posting the number of hours worked by other staff (i.e., non-nursing) in July 2018. Facilities are required to submit hours for all other staff as listed in Table 1 of the PBJ Policy Manual. We will also distinguish between hours submitted for direct employees and contract staff. 
  
• In October 2019, CMS will resume posting the average number of citations per inspection for each state and nationally. CMS is monitoring outcomes of the new inspection process and plans to resume health inspection rating calculations (i.e., end the freeze) in the spring of 2019. CMS will communicate more details about this prior to its implementation.
  

Since the new Long-Term Care Survey Process (LTCSP) launched on November 28, 2017, 702 citations have been given for F686 (Skin Integrity). 22% of those tags are a G scope or above. Many of the citations are for:

·         Failure to provide care to treat and/or prevent worsening pressure ulcers

·         Failure to prevent facility-acquired pressure ulcers

·         Failure to develop and/or follow the care plan

·         Failure to ensure accurate assessment, obtain treatment orders, or communicate with other professional staff

·         Failure to prevent infection of wounds

Widespread pressure ulcer issues are no surprise when facilities don’t have proper protocols in place for prevention, early identification, and treatment, according to Wendy DeCarvalho, MS, BSN, RN, DNS-CT, Director of Nursing for Scotia Village in North Carolina. As a DNS and clinical nurse consultant in long-term care facilities nationwide, DeCarvalho has worked to improve Quality Measures, including those for pressure ulcer rates. “If the staff doesn’t have protocols in place, pressure ulcers often go unchecked, untracked, and untreated,” she says. She recommends the following best practices.

• Transition to Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) Data – Starting in April, 2018, CMS will use PBJ data to determine each facility’s staffing measure on the Nursing Home Compare tool on Medicare.gov website, and calculate the staffing rating used in the Nursing Home Five Star Quality Rating System.

• Staffing data audits - We are providing lessons-learned from audits conducted, and guidance to facilities for improving their accuracy. Nursing homes whose audit identifies significant inaccuracies between the hours reported and the hours verified, or facilities who fail to submit any data by the required deadline will be presumed to have low levels of staff. This will result in a one-star rating in the staffing domain, which will drop their overall (composite) star rating by one star for a quarter.

• Requirement for registered nurse (RN) staffing – We are reminding nursing homes of the importance of RN staffing and the requirement to have an RN onsite 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nursing homes reporting 7 or more days in a quarter with no RN hours will receive a one-star rating in the staffing domain, which will drop their overall (composite) star rating by one star for a quarter. This action will be implemented in July 2018, after the May 15, 2018 submission deadline for data for 2018 Calendar Quarter 1, 2018 (January – March, 2018) data.