According to a new QSO memo from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), some nursing homes are going to find out just how they would do with surveyors in their building over the weekend. CMS has identified concerns in nursing home staffing levels using the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) data, including multiple days with no RN on site as well as significant decreases in staffing levels over the weekend. As a result, CMS will be providing the Regional Offices and State Agencies (SAs) with a list of facilities that may have potential staffing issues to aid their investigations on survey to see if there is sufficient staffing.
Specifically, CMS is going to be providing SAs with information on facilities that have significantly low nurse staffing levels on weekends and facilities that have reported several days with no RN onsite during a quarter. If no RN is onsite for the minimally required time, they will be cited at F727. The SAs are now required to conduct a minimum of 50% of required off-hours surveys on weekends using the list that CMS is providing.
View the November 30, 2018 SQO Memo, “Payroll Based Journal Manual Updates, Notification to States and New Minimum Data Set (MDS) Census Reports.”
