MDS Alert

An ounce of effort up front can prevent heavy-duty problems later.

Implementing a consistent strategy to ensure you have the back-up documentation for MDS items that drive payment pays off in more ways than one. In facilities where Nemcy Cavite Duran, RN, BSN, CRNAC, consults, she's implemented a procedure in which the staff copies the records documenting skilled services, such as the hospital medication administration record. The staff then "highlights using a yellow marker all of the services coded on the MDS," says Duran, president of N. Cavite RN Consulting Services PC in Flushing, NY. The staff clips those highlighted records to the MDS assessment in the medical record, reports Duran. "Then if there is an audit, the documentation is readily available," she says. "When coding the MDS, staff can also see the documentation is there."