MDS Alert

Here's one practice you want to avoid.

In the MDS compliance world, there are some clear-cut don'ts that can hurt your facility if you don't know to avoid them.

And backdating the MDS falls in the camp of OBRA no-no's.

Example: One facility didn't date anything on the MDS until its care plan meetings, and then they decided what to date when, says Leah Klusch, RN, BSN, executive director of the Alliance Training Center in Alliance, OH. "That isn't how it works."

Consultant Marilyn Mines, RN, BC, RAC-C, has seen facilities that sign and date the MDS to fit the "regulation timeline"--even when they haven't finished the paperwork and/or the care plan.

The compliance bottom line: "If a facility gets caught doing that--it's in big trouble," cautions Mines, who is director of clinical services for FR&R Healthcare Consulting in Deerfield, IL.

Instead: Use the OBRA and PPS-required assessment charts in the RAI manual and look at whether your assessment meets those criteria for timing on those charts (www.cms.hhs.gov/NursingHomeQualityInits/Downloads/MDS20rai1202ch2.pdf).