MDS Alert

Question: What’s the cutoff for a resident’s time in a facility being considered a short stay or a long stay?

Hawaii Subscriber

Answer: Short stay and long stay refer to the cumulative number of days a resident’s care is covered by Medicare while within a facility. Short-stay residents are in a facility for 100 days or less; long-stay residents have cumulative stays 101 days or longer.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses Quality Measures (QM) to evaluate how residents fare in nursing homes and have different QM for short-stay versus long-stay residents. Once a resident hits the 101-day threshold, CMS will consider the long-stay QM only in respect to that resident’s care.