Long-Term Care Survey Alert
Quality Reporting:
Don't Inflate Your Pain Quality Measures
Published on Tue Feb 01, 2005 
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Take credit where credit's due on the MDS. If a resident's pain management regimen controls his pain, give your facility a good grade on the MDS.
Record a zero for no pain at J2a (frequency of pain) when residents report they have been pain free during the seven-day lookback thanks to their pain management regimen.
Coding what you think the patient's pain would be without treatment will artificially increase pain quality measures - and that may give surveyors the idea the facility isn't addressing this vital clinical issue.
Tip: Even though a resident doesn't have enough discomfort to trigger the pain QM, make sure the facility is meeting his goals for pain relief.
Other Articles in this issue of
Long-Term Care Survey Alert
- Quality of Care:
Check The Fifth Vital Sign In Wound Assessment
Stay on top of wound pain - or your facility will be in pain on [...] - Quality Reporting:
Don't Inflate Your Pain Quality Measures
Take credit where credit's due on the MDS. If a resident's pain management regimen controls [...] - Survey Management:
6 Mistakes You Never Want To Make With Advance Directives
These shortfalls offer advance warning of survey and legal woes
Advance directives help healthcare providers honor [...] - Care Planning:
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Using this excuse for a decubitus ulcer is like telling surveyors the dog ate the [...] - Abuse and Neglect Prevention:
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The underlying cause of residents' bruises or skin tears may lie in your staffing ratios [...] - End-of-Life Care:
Stay Out Of The Fray With A These Lessons From Survey Battle
Case chronicles facility's struggle with a resident's end-of-life instructions - and her family's counter demands.
Advance [...] - Reader Question:
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Question: We are aware of a facility in our region that hired an LPN whose [...] - Survey News To Use
-The whole is greater than the sum of its parts ... and CMS' internal long-term [...] - Clip 'N Save:
Does Your Facility's Pain Management Program Pass Muster?
Use this chart to find out.
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