MDS Alert
DAVE Says Take These 6 Steps To Prevent MDS Snafus
Keep your MDS process on track with these communication systems and policies.
If you want to avoid MDS errors - and keep the fiscal intermediary off your trail - follow these expert tips from the government's watchdog, DAVE:
1. Make sure all interdisciplinary team members know the assessment reference date, as well as the observation periods for all MDS sections, advised Michelle McDonald, RN, MPH, the DAVE onsite clinical review manager, during a recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Webcast on improving MDS accuracy for ADLs and restorative nursing. Not all MDS sections have a seven-day lookback.
2. Implement policies and procedures identifying who is on the interdisciplinary team.
3. Designate the person responsible for setting the assessment reference date or ARD.
4. Identify who is responsible for completing various MDS sections and how the facility will share MDS assessment information. "You can conduct short team meetings, for example, or more comprehensive weekly meetings," McDonald said. (For more information, see the "In the Spotlight" feature, Article 6.)
5. Complete the MDS using the latest regulatory standards. Assign someone to check for the latest manual updates on a regular basis at www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/mds20.
6. Target the MDS error-prone sections on DAVE's hit list. These are: Section P (special treatments and procedures, including therapy minutes and restorative nursing); Section I (disease diagnoses); Section 0 (medications); Section J (health conditions, including falls and pain); Section G (activities of daily living). DAVE has found problems in Section G1 with self-performance scoring for transfer, bed mobility and toilet use; and in coding support provided for bed mobility; and in coding G1d(A) - Walk in Room/Self-Performance.
Watch the Aug. 27 CMS Webcast on improving MDS accuracy of ADLs and restorative at www.cms.internetstreaming.com.
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