Nursing Homes Note
By Lynn Fossen, VP of AHI Consulting
Re: QSO Memo 22-08 NH -Staffing Turnover and Weekend Staffing
Allow me to point out the 1:2 punch from CMS in one of the recent QSO’s for SNF’s. The QSO is making the staffing patterns more visible to the public by requiring facilities to share their weekend nursing hours as well as their staff turnover rate. This information will appear on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website beginning in January of 2022. This data will also impact facility 5-star rating scores starting in July of 2022.
The level of weekend staffing, including RNs, LPNs, and CNAs, is reported over a quarter indicating the number of hours worked per day.
Staff turnover will be reported by looking at the data over the last year. Reporting will include the percentage of RN staff that have left the facility, total nurse staff that have left the facility {comma} and the number of administrators that have left the facility.
It will be imperative that you report the data correctly. Remember to link employee identifiers to ensure accuracy in data submission. To learn more, click on the links within the QSO by visiting:
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-22-08-nh.pdf
Let us all simply be honest for a moment. I personally cannot help but feel a bit negative regarding the QSO as it was pushed out at a time when we are struggling with staffing in the middle of a pandemic.
We know you are in the middle of managing staffing at a crisis level at your facilities which makes this step an even more jagged pill to swallow.
An interesting side note: CMS has identified that when there is turnover within the LNHA and with leadership in the nursing department there is fallout resulting in reduced quality. What? Wow, wait what? We did not know that, right? Okay, I hear you grumbling and I agree with you! Of course, there is fallout.
The upside is that CMS wants the data on staffing. They will be forced to face the problem with hard facts and hopefully do something to help facilities. We need CMS and our governing body to recognize the needs of long-term care. It is hard to argue with analytical data. To that end, I remain hopeful there is a wake-up call that will lead to the change we have been waiting for regarding care of the elderly.