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February is National Heart Awareness Month.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease. Healthfinder.gov, published by the US Department of Health and Human Services reminds us that heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions. Communities, health professionals, and families can work together to create opportunities for people to make healthier choices. Spread the good news!
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While it's still cold and snowy outside, we have some hot topics for you this month. Read below for an update on expectations for Medical Record Audit with electronic records, as one of the issues we are seeing with our surveys. Stay ahead of the game and review your process now to assure ongoing clarity and completeness of your patient records.
Also, see how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have reorganized to eliminate some services and consolidate others. In this article, learn about the
CMS Office of Program Operations and what the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) will be doing.
Have a great month and let us know if there are additional topics you'd like to hear about!
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The 2020 Reorganization of CMS
In November 2019, CMS announced its plan to
reorganize its infrastructure.
These changes and the rationale for the changes were published in the November 25, 2019 Federal Register. The operational changes are significant and expansive, our focus for this article will be a summary of the overarching changes and the duties of the newly announced Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ). Read More.
About the Author -
Pat Cook is a Senior Consultant and Director of Administrative Services at Courtemanche & Associates.
A Registered Pharmacist, Pat has nearly four decades of healthcare administrative and regulatory experience. With her extensive healthcare background, Pat serves as a knowledgeable resource to new and existing clients, helping to guide them through their accreditation and regulatory needs. Read more about Pat and our team.
"Pat was friendly and informative. Her direction and findings will help us with our up coming Survey." Melissa Sparks, Ascension Genesys Hospital
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A special Thank you to our design team;
and Shara Mae Lintag, Student https://sharamaelintag.weebly.com/ from
The Academy for Design at the Morris County
School of Technology in Denville, NJ.
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W
hat does your Medical Record Audits look like?
F
o
r
ye
ar
s, organizations conducted concurrent and retrospective audits in a
variety of forms using a variety of tools. However, we hav
e
been findi
ng this practice to be declining since the electronic he
alth re
cord has taken the spotlight in daily patient care activities.
Medical Record Audits are required by Regulators and Accrediting agencies.
Organizations must remain vigilant in th
ese
day
s
of large data, automated data reporting systems and canned data reports - these items are not necessarily medical record audits. Medical record audits must be an
ongoing review of medical records at the point of care, based on the following indicators: presence, timeliness, legibility (whether handwritten or printed), accuracy, authentication, and completeness of data and information.
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About the Author -
James Ballard is an Associate Consultant with over 30 years of experience responsible for assessing healthcare organizations' readiness for licensing, accreditation and regulatory compliance. He has worked in a variety of healthcare positions and his experiences range from Surgical Technologist, EMT, Combat Medicine to a Federally Certified Healthcare Surveyor (Hospital, Critical Access, Transplant, Ambulatory Survey Centers and Long-Term Care), to Director positions over Compliance, Quality, Infection Prevention, Safety, Risk Management, Employee Health, and Emergency Preparedness. Mr. Ballard was the main creator of the CMS Focused Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (FQAPI) Survey process and tool for Transplant programs in Hospitals. Read more about James and our team.
"James is knowledgeable, personable and understood and met our needs. James is a great resource."
Tony Dillard, Anne Arundel Medical Center
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Our 2020 C_APPS Membership is now available for purchase!
A unique program designed for leaders that provides access to useful tools over the course of one year to assist your team in improving survey outcomes and understanding regulatory requirements and expectations.
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Each month's package will contain a minimum of 3 documents that may cover tracing tools, competencies, checklists for policies & procedures or other useful items.
We design the packets to cover the top problematic standards from both the national data that is available and from our internal data.
Examples of some upcoming topics are Infection Prevention, Suicide Assessment and Intervention, Immediate Jeopardy and other timely topics.
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Colleague feedback includes:
"Great tools - very user friendly and very useful"
"I like the fact that you provide the policy, tracer and competency for one focused topic" "
...The checklists are very helpful"
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The Joint Commission® is a registered trademark of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Courtemanche & Associates has no affiliation with this entity.
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