Long-Term Care

Save valuable time with strategies to improve nurse documentation

PPS Alert for Long-Term Care, November 1, 2009

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to PPS Alert for Long-Term Care.

MDS coordinators are often expected to accomplish many tasks in a short period, and as facilities face the challenges associated with MDS 3.0 implementation, lack of time may become a more pressing problem.

“CMS has said that the MDS 3.0 will not take any more time to complete than the MDS 2.0,” says ¬Carol Marshall, MA, a long-term care consultant in Fort Worth, TX. “Although this may prove to be true once facilities are comfortable using the new system, adapting
to change is time-consuming.”

To successfully transition to the MDS 3.0, SNFs will have to develop new policies and procedures, train all staff members, and foster good interviewing and documentation skills among employees. These tasks will require time and effort from SNF staff members and add to the MDS coordinator’s lengthy to-do list.

“It is not uncommon for an MDS coordinator to spend two or more hours completing an MDS, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” Marshall says.

MDS coordinators can save valuable time by tackling one of the most demanding aspects of the assessment system: nurses’ notes.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to PPS Alert for Long-Term Care.

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