Emergency Preparedness Plan: How the DNS Can Ensure the Nursing Department Is Ready When Disaster Strikes

Emergency preparedness is a vital component of maintaining safety and ensuring continuity of care in post-acute care settings. Facilities face unique challenges in emergency situations. The vulnerable people they care for, including the elderly and those recovering from surgery or a serious illness, are especially susceptible to adverse outcomes. The …

LTPAC Onboarding and Orientation Process Pitfalls

In this podcast, Amy Stewart, MSN, RN, DNS-MT, QCP-MT, RAC-MT, RAC-MTA, chief nursing officer for AAPACN, and Lauren Stenson, MSN, RN, CNDLTC, QCP, DNS-CT, curriculum development specialist for AAPACN, discuss some common pitfalls of the onboarding and orientation process in long-term and post-acute care settings and how to set new …

Emergency Preparedness In-service Education

Long-term care facilities face unique problems when disasters strike. Staff’s quick thinking and correct action can protect staff members, residents, and families. Use this in-service education to prepare staff for when a disaster occurs. This AAPACN resource is copyright protected. AAPACN individual members may download or print one copy for …

Mastering the Discharge Function Score for Skilled Nursing Facilities

By Greg Seiple Discharge planning is an essential component of patient care in skilled nursing facilities. But how do healthcare professionals determine when a resident is ready to leave and manage daily activities independently? Enter the Discharge Function Score—a critical tool in evaluating a resident’s ability to function outside of …

GG0130 and GG0170: Using Clinical Judgment to Establish Usual Performance

The ability to exercise clinical judgment to define usual performance in MDS items GG0130 (Self-Care) and GG0170 (Mobility) offers nursing homes unprecedented opportunity to impact quality measures (QMs), says Rosanna Benbow, RN, CCM, ICC, IP, DNS-CT, QCP, RAC-CTA, regional director of operations at Proactive LTC Consulting in Evansville, IN. “You …

OIG: Nursing Facility Industry Segment-Specific Compliance Program Guidance

From https://oig.hhs.gov/compliance/nursing-facility-icpg/ The Nursing Facility ICPG—together with OIG’s General Compliance Program Guidance (GCPG) that applies to all individuals and entities involved in the health care industry—serves as OIG’s updated and centralized source of voluntary compliance program guidance for nursing facilities. Nursing facilities can use the ICPG to help identify their own risks and …

SNF ABN Update: What Changed and How to Keep the Process Running Smoothly

Effective Oct. 31, 2024, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) now are required to use an updated Skilled Nursing Facility Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (SNF ABN), also known as form CMS-10055, and the corresponding revised instructions to provide financial liability notifications to residents under fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare Part A. Note: The …

Sepsis Primer: What Is It, and How Does It Tie Into Survey and QMs?

Sepsis—a key driver of hospital readmissions—can have negative clinical impacts for residents and negative financial, quality, survey, and even legal impacts for nursing homes. Here is a review of important basics: What is sepsis? The current clinical definition of sepsis is “life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response …

Mock Substance Overdose Toolkit

When a substance overdose situation occurs, staff must know how to respond. Nurse leadership should provide staff opportunities to practice and perfect their response to these events. The Mock Substance Overdose Toolkit will assist nurse managers in setting up the mock drill, evaluating staff compliance with procedural steps, and facilitating …