Home Health & Hospice Week

Stasis ulcer nonsense should be eliminated.

The OASIS pressure ulcer questions aren’t the only integumentary items getting a makeover in OASIS-C1. You’ll see differences with stasis ulcers and surgical wounds as well. Here’s a brief rundown of the changes:

• M1334: Status of Most Problematic (Observable) Stasis Ulcer becomes Status of Most Problematic Stasis Ulcer that is Observable. Also, you’ll no longer see “Newly epithelialized” as a response for this item because it’s an inappropriate option, said Judy Adams with Adams Home Care Consulting in Asheville, N.C. “Even before OASIS-C, we knew we couldn’t call a stasis ulcer newly epithelialized. Once it’s epithelialized, it doesn’t exist any more. This choice never applied for an existing stasis ulcer,” she said during the Eli-sponsored audioconference, “OASIS-C1 Changes.”

• M1340: Does this patient have a Surgical Wound? Response “2” changes to “Surgical wound known but not observable due to non-removable dressing/device” adding “device” to the response for consistency with other wound items. This item also has a new skip pattern because item M1350: Does this patient have a Skin Lesion or Open Wound? will be deleted at follow-up and DC.

• M1342: Status of Most Problematic (Observable) Surgical Wound changes to “Status of Most Problematic Surgical Wound that is Observable.” You “must be able to see the wound in order to report the status,” Adams said.