MDS Alert

Surveyor checklist gives you an inside look at revisions.

If you haven’t already made certain changes to your dementia care, you’d better act soon — or you’re going to be in hot water with surveyors.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Survey and Certification Letter that revises Appendices P and PP in the State Operations Manual (SOM) for Nursing Facilities. Specifically, the revisions affect F309-Quality of Care and F329-Unnecessary Drugs regarding care of persons with dementia.

“According to CMS, the revised guidance highlights and reemphasizes many of the dementia-care elements and key principles already required under current regulations, including person-centered care, quality and quantity of staff, and critical thinking related to the use of antipsychotic medications,” Evvie Munley, Senior Health Policy Analyst for Washington, D.C.-based Leading Age, said in a June 3 announcement.

CMS also made changes to the survey resident sampling process, “intended to ensure the sample includes an adequate number of residents with dementia who are receiving an antipsychotic medication,” Munley noted. You can read Leading Age’s analysis of the SOM changes at www.leadingage.org/CMS_Clarifies_Guidance_for_Care_of_Persons_with_Dementia.aspx.

Resources: To view the May 24 Survey and Certification Letter, go to www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/Downloads/Survey-and-Cert-Letter-13-35.pdf. And you can view the “Surveyor Checklist for Review of Care and Services for a Resident with Dementia” on the CMS Surveyor Training website at surveyortraining.cms.hhs.gov/index.aspx.