Long-Term Care Survey Alert

MDS Corner:

Use the MDS to Identify Hospice Candidates

These qualify indicators/measures provide a major clue.

Having a goal of offering hospice to dying residents is a good start, but you also need to identify who might benefit from a shift to palliative care.

MDS to the rescue: To identify hospice candidates, Cherry Meier, RN, MSN, tells nursing facilities to look at the three chronic care QIs/QMs that exclude residents on hospice: weight loss, ADL decline, and worsening ability to move in and about the room.

"Likewise, many of the QIs/QMs will start being triggered when someone is in the dying process," says Meier, with VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in Flat Rock, N.C.

Also: Short-stay residents receiving hospice are excluded from the post-acute delirium measure on the 14-day PPS assessment.

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