OASIS Alert

What will you do when the assessing clinician is unavailable to sign off?

A workable OASIS correction policy can help prepare your agency for a variety of situations. But don't hem yourself in to a standard you can't meet.

You'll want to study all the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulations and guidelines and consult legal counsel before finalizing your agency's policy.

• Who can make corrections to which OASIS items;
• How the changes will be made and documented;
• What you will do if the assessing clinician is unavailable to sign off on changes;
• Whether and how you will track suggested corrections that aren't finalized.
• Lafayette, La.-based LHC Group shares the following sample OASIS correction policy:

Policy on OASIS corrections

If OASIS information is missing or incorrect, other agency personnel responsible for editing the OASIS data may, after consulting with the qualified clinician who completed the assessment, make additions/corrections prior to locking and transmitting the data. Clerical and billing staff can make changes/corrections to the OASIS tracking M0010-M0069, M0140-M0150. However, these changes may not be made to the signed assessment form. Rather they should be documented as separate notation or on a separate form that must be included in the clinical record. For agencies on Point of Care, the clinician will verify accuracy within the electronic medical record.

In the event the clinician is not available to discuss recommendations (vacation, medical leave, no longer with the agency), the reviewer will discuss recommendations with the Branch manager to determine if there are non assessment OASIS items for which the Branch Manager can authorize changes.

The reviewer makes only agreed upon changes to OASIS. If there are any OASIS recommendations the clinician does not agree to, these are documented in the electronic health record notes/conference/coordination section. The reviewer will record all recommendations, whether agreed to or not.