This week’s CMSCG Blog “Ftag of the Week” series is F639 Maintain 15 Months of Resident Assessments, which is the former F286. The regulatory language at F639 states the obvious, which is that “a facility must maintain all resident assessments completed within the previous 15 months in the resident’s active record.” However, the updated Appendix PP has additional language that creates a potential care planning deficiency associated with this tag. This is because facilities are specifically directed to use the results of those 15 months of assessments to “develop, review and revise the resident’s comprehensive care plan.” Care planning citations are amongst the most frequently cited throughout the country year after year, and this is another way that facilities can find themselves receiving a citation – by not making use of the assessments as they were conducted to develop a comprehensive care plan.
Remember that a surveyor can look back at these assessments and identify specific instances where your IDCP Team failed to develop or revise a plan of care for a specific care area. Lastly, review your facility’s storage practices to ensure that they include the ready access to each resident’s RAI history (15 months’ worth) of MDSs – quarterly and comprehensive, CAA Summaries, Identification Information and Entry, Discharge and Reentry Tracking Records and all MDS Correction Requests (including signed attestation).
