Nursing Home Federal Requirements: Guidelines to Surveyors and Survey Protocols

"[The book] lists all the federal requirements that are evaluated by state surveyors during the annual survey visit to nursing homes and for complaint visits. The exhibit section contains forms used by surveyors to gather data during the survey visit. Visually, the format makes the regulations easy to read. If nursing home staff used the book to prepare for a survey, they would be well prepared."

-Marcia Flesner, PhD, RN, MHCA
University of Missouri-Columbia
From Doody's Review

Nursing homes are now the most highly regulated environments in the United States, in the service of maximizing the quality of each residentís life. This user-friendly guide has been updated to provide all of the requisite information needed by nursing home staff to prepare for a visit from federal surveyors. It provides the most current federal guidelines and the procedures used by federal surveyors in certifying facilities for participation in Medicare and Medicaid funding. It describes every aspect and service of a nursing home that is subject to inspection and includes the nearly 20% of new requirements established during the past three years, with an emphasis on the new Minimum Data Set 3.0.

The guide not only presents federal requirements and explanatory guidelines but also explains how to best interpret these guidelines so nursing home staff can be optimally prepared for a survey visit. It reflects changes in regulations regarding end-of-life care, nasogastric tube regulations, and rights to establish advance directives. The guide also provides information straight from CMS's Internet-Only Manual.

New Features of Eighth Edition:

• Describes how to best use the updated manual
• Focuses on Minimum Data Set 3.0
• Explains clearly how to interpret the new requirements, 20% of which have been updated
• Presents new quality measures
• Includes new CMS forms
• Reflects changes in regulations regarding end-of-life care, nasogastric tube regulations, and rights to establish advance directives