Averages can help or hinder your evaluation of performance. Adding a few additional pieces of data can really support your efforts to properly see opportunity and manage risk.
All the data points to … you tell me
By
Steven Littlehale
Jun 22, 2018
Returning from an early morning walk down to the harbor of this sleepy Cape Cod town, it’s hard not to feel hopeful. My geriatric pups Melvin and Theodore couldn’t get enough of the sea smells...
Bingo: The road to ruins or the road to riches?
By
Steven Littlehale
May 21, 2018
Grandma sure liked her bingo. She excelled at bingo and most card games. Even in games that seemed to involve no skill at all, Grandma almost always emerged the winner.
Payment reform: Ready! Set! Don’t go! No, I mean go!
By
Steven Littlehale
Apr 23, 2018
Perhaps you think that the new therapy-payment bombshell (RCS-1) has turned out to be a dud. I hope to make the point that it was not.
How will PBJ impact Five-Star staffing? Would you like one lump or two?
By
Steven Littlehale
Mar 30, 2018
We don’t know when, and we don’t know how, but when Payroll-Based Journal staffing data replaces the data currently being captured from CMS Form 671 for calculating Five-Star staffing, we are...
Does cognitive impairment contribute to SNF-to-hospital transition?
By
Steven Littlehale
Feb 28, 2018
Exceptional SNF utilized appropriate structure, process and outcome measures. Despite this, however, it might have better been called “Mediocre SNF.”
How good does your data need to be?
By
Steven Littlehale
Jan 29, 2018
It’s a loaded question: How good does your data need to be? If we’re honest with ourselves, we must admit that we’re not perfect. Nor are the systems we create to help minimize error...
Five-Star is anything but frozen
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 13, 2017
The day after Thanksgiving, CMS further defined its intensions with the Five-Star Quality Rating System; more specifically how the new survey process and derivative data will be used in its calculation...
Sometimes a carrot is really a stick … but sometimes it’s 24-karat gold!
By
Steven Littlehale
Nov 27, 2017
We all yearn for a time when value-based purchasing (and care) loses its originality. A time when motivations for providing excellent care and achieving excellent resident outcomes are aligned with reimbursement.
A natural evolution of the MDS coordinator: Nurse Informaticist
By
Steven Littlehale
Oct 27, 2017
Jennifer Gross, BSN, RN-BC, RAC-CT, fascinates me. Most recently, she completed a graduate certificate program in informatics, a subject that is playing a critical role in the explosion of health information...