Last week, CMS Compliance Group’s President, Linda Elizaitis, spoke on a LeadingAge New York audio conference, “Managing Behaviors and Unnecessary Drugs.” With the increased focus from CMS on decreasing the use of anti-psychotics, you should be focusing on non-pharmacological interventions, so this is an important topic for your skilled nursing facility to address. Here are 5 things you need to remember when thinking about the behavior management programs in your facility:
- Make sure your individual resident-center behavior management plan is development and implemented by an interdisciplinary team. Revisions to and the effectiveness of the plan should be documented in the medical record – show what’s working and what isn’t.
- Families should be a part of the care team when possible. They need to be aware of behaviors being exhibited and what the resident’s program is for managing the behavior.
- Behavior modification isn’t just for residents – it’s pertinent to your staff, too. Ensure they are using non-threatening approaches when engaging residents and not issuing orders.
- Your facility’s medical practitioner must make sure there are no medical issues causing a behavior problem. Could the cause be a UTI or acute delirium or that the resident is simply hungry?
- Use the resident’s history to find out what he/she liked in the past and use it as part of the plan of care.
