How LTC facilities can use communication technology to avoid compliance traps
By
Gary Hamilton
Frances Carroll
Apr 02, 2024
“If it is not documented, it is not done” is a fundamental rule of healthcare. For those who work in long-term care (LTC) and skilled nursing, a relevant version of this rule is, “If a staff member...
Cracking the code
By
John Hall
Jul 01, 2013
Long-term care administrators and nurses are under pressure to train staff to assess and document skin conditions to keep patients out of the hospital.
Asking for the medical record
By
Steven Littlehale
Jan 29, 2014
Millions of dollars have been paid by nursing homes who unsuccessfully defended themselves against incomplete or absent documentation. There are not as many legal guidelines regarding medical records maintenance...
‘The therapy caps are back!!!’
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Apr 05, 2012
Are the therapy caps back? Well, sort of. Here’s a quick summary of the current regulations that were recently passed and how they affect you.
Avoid lawsuits and protect licenses
By
David Barmak Esq., and Betty Frandsen, MHA, NHA, RN
Feb 06, 2017
Document, document, document! Those words echo through the halls in a myriad of places − from the firing of an employee for cause, to substantiating or absolving an accusation of abuse or wrongful act.
Defining tolerance in therapy
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Feb 12, 2014
How do you define tolerance? Is tolerance measurable? Is tolerance too subjective? What about activity tolerance? We love to document how patients are improving activity tolerance, but many times that’s...
Jimmo guidance: Document goal before you provide care
By
Tim Mullaney
Feb 01, 2014
Skilled nursing facilities should not claim that therapy was to maintain a patient’s condition if documentation reflected only an improvement goal.
Chat up your in-house counsel
By
Elizabeth Newman
Feb 10, 2017
Sessions at the LeadingAge Institute covered the need to have documentation and delegation to reduce nursing liability, and another reflected an in-house counsel’s perspective on hot legal topics.
Ask the nursing expert … about ICD-10’s impact on nurses
By
Angel McGarrity-Davis, RN, CDONA, NHA
Apr 01, 2014
What is ICD-10? What does this mean for nurses?
Ask the care expert … about photographing wounds
By
Sherrie Dornberger
Sep 01, 2013
I am a charge nurse on a skilled unit. We do not take photos of wounds, but I would really like to take pictures. As they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Do you agree?