SNF DNS Indicted re: Fraudulent COVID Vaccine Cards and Lying to Federal Investigators (12/21)

Case Marks First Charges Brought in District of South Carolina Related to Fraudulent Vaccine Cards Columbia, South Carolina — Acting United States Attorney M. Rhett DeHart announced today that a Federal Grand Jury in Columbia returned a multiple-count indictment in connection with the production of fraudulent COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards, the …

5-Minute Learning Modules for Frontline Staff: Emotional and Organizational Support (12/21)

These brief videos offer self-paced learning for those on the front lines of nursing home care. This includes nursing assistants, housekeeping, dietary, and maintenance staff, and others. Emotional and Organizational Support for Staff Series This series of three learning modules features strategies to help nursing home teams recognize and manage …

OIG: Facility-Initiated Discharges in Nursing Homes Require Further Attention (11/21)

The magnitude of facility-initiated discharges in nursing homes remains unknown. Many challenges exist to identifying and addressing inappropriate facility-initiated discharges, including that neither Administration for Community Living (ACL) nor Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) collect data on the number of facility-initiated discharges, and many State Ombudsmen do not …

Book: Making Healthcare Safe (10/21)

Electronic access (PDF) to this book is free with IHI membership (also free). ​​​​​​​Leape LL. Making Healthcare Safe. Springer; 2021. Written by Lucian ​Leape, a pioneer of t​he patient safety movement, this book describes how patient safety became recognized as an important problem, the underlying science, and the efforts to implement changes. The …

CMS Online Training Courses: (1) Improving LGBTQ Health Care Quality and (2) Achieving Health Equity (7/21)

Improving Health Care Quality for LGBTQ People (Contact Hours 70 min.) Learn to identify sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) terminology to build trust with LGBTQ patients and recognize health disparities that impact many older LGBTQ adults. Recognize evidence-based questions to more accurately obtain SOGI data, and processes for maintaining data in …

OIG: COVID-19 Had Devastating Impact on Medicare Beneficiaries in LTC During 2020 (6/21)

(OEI-02-20-00490) This data snapshot showed the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Medicare beneficiaries in U.S. nursing homes in 2020. It provides objective, standardized data based on Medicare claims for beneficiaries in nursing homes throughout the country. Until this data snapshot, data on the number of nursing home residents …

HHS Office of Civil Rights Alerts Healthcare Providers Against Ransomware Attacks (6/21)

June 9, 2021 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is sharing the following alerts from the White House and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).  Organizations are encouraged to review the information below and take appropriate actions. White House Memo: What We Urge …