Long-Term Care Survey Alert

Ready for surveys without QI/QM reports? Starting Oct. 1 when the MDS 3.0 goes live, CMS and providers will experience a "blackout" phase where they won't have access to MDS-generated quality indicators and measures. And CMS has revised the survey tasks in Appendix P to allow surveyors to select the Phase I survey sample without using the reports, according to a recent survey & cert memo.

"This temporary revision to Traditional Survey Process Tasks 1-5C will be implemented Oct. 1, 2010 only for those nursing home surveys in which the traditional survey process is being used," states CMS in the memo (http://www.cms.gov/surveycertificationgeninfo/downloads/scletter10_27.pdf).

The changes will continue from Oct. 1 until further notice, according to the memo.

An advanced copy of the revised Appendix P directs surveyors to use the CMS-802 (roster/sample matrix form) to "highlight concerns the team identifies for Phase 1 of the survey, and to list any potential residents pre-selected. Mark the offsite block on this form to distinguish it from the Phase 1 version that will be completed in Task 4, 'Sample Selection.'"

CMS has presented revisions in red or in italics. "Srikethroughs are used for those items that will be placed on hold until further notice. All remaining portions of Appendix P are unchanged," states the memo.

The MDS 3.0 will also affect the CMS-802 and CMS-672 (resident census and conditions of residents), and Appendix PP, the memo notes. CMS plans to identify these changes in a future survey & cert memo. In other words, stay tuned.

More to come: For tips on how to manage the traditional survey come Oct. 1, see the next Long-Term Care Survey Alert.

CMS continues to make changes to the MDS 3.0 RAI User's Manual. On Aug. 12, CMS posted more revisions to the manual, noting that "any sections or chapters that have had revisions will now have an updated version number along with the month and year that the information was revised (e.g. MDS 3.0 Chapter 4 V1.03 August 2010). Subsequent revisions of any section or chapter of the manual will have updated version numbers (e.g. V1.04, V1.05, etc.). Any sections or chapters that have NOT been revised will have the same version number, month, and year that that version was last published (e.g. MDS 3.0 RAI Manual Chapter 3 Section A V1.02 July 2010)."