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April arrives amid a world crisis related to COVID 19
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Practice social distancing whenever you can, wash your hands often and disinfect frequently used items. Good advice for a rapidly spreading virus. Be mindful of where you are and who you are with as you continue to assess your own status and that of your family and friends. And remember to thank the true super heroes, the healthcare professionals who save lives everyday.
We invite you to enroll in our FREE presentation,
"
Pandemic Management
"
and peruse other offerings,
such as
"Managing the Environment of Care During the COVID 19 World Crisis," available through our on-demand Quality Academy.
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This month, we've included an article entitled, "Help! We Just Received A Termination Letter from CMS." We often receive questions from organizations on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Termination Policy and where to find additional information for how to respond when it happens. This newsletter is focused on the termination process, policies and how to respond. It is always a bit of a shock, more one of panic, when such a letter is received. James Ballard, our CMS expert has detailed the steps to take and where to find the information you need. In addition, Patricia Cook has included information about Discharge Planning and why it's important. Learn tips and solutions that can be applied to your process as you assess your internal processes to meet regulatory expectations.
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Why is Discharge Planning So
Important?
Timely and comprehensive discharge planning helps with patient and/or family satisfaction and can assist with minimizing the number of re-admissions if the plan is the most appropriate for the patient, and includes detailed education & discharge instructions along with crucial information to be shared with the next caregiver.
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.
"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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CMS Notice of Termination (Medicare)
Executive Summary
The CMS Regional Office notifies the provider/supplier of its termination by letter at least 15 calendar days before the effective date of the termination. In the case of a hospital with an emergency department having deficiencies that pose an immediate jeopardy to the health or safety of individuals who present themselves to the hospital for emergency services, CMS gives the hospital a preliminary notice that its provider agreement will be terminated in 23 calendar days if it does not correct the identified deficiencies or refute the finding. CMS gives a final notice of termination, and concurrent notice to the public, at least 2, but not more than 4, calendar days before the effective date of termination of the provider agreement. Read more.
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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This curriculum offers in depth research-based education including:
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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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