Boyer and Associates Weblog

"From Brink of Disaster to Profitability"

2009-11-06T10:34:00.002-06:00

Come see Pat Boyer and Laura Fowler, Administrator at Kingston Medical Center present at AAHSA, November 11th at 8am.

At the presentation learn about the process of an operational assessment and what one facility had to do in order to stay in business.

New Infection Control Guidelines: F441-The Revised Guidelines & What You Need to Know

2009-09-01T10:58:00.003-05:00

Long term care facilities have a greater risk of infections due to the age and co-morbidities of the residents. It is the facilities responsibilities to identify, treat, control and contain infectious diseases. With the revision of F441 the regulations better define what steps should be taken to prevent infections and the scope of the Infection Control program in terms of oversight, components of the program, policies and procedures, reporting, surveillance, prevention, control of transmission, recognition and containment of outbreaks. Programs should include a disaster preparedness plan and define how the facility will respond to the situation. Surveillance is one of the key components in an infection control program and the regulations require it be done on a daily basis not retrospectively. Surveillance will assist to identify potential outbreaks and monitor infection control practices within the facility.

With the flu season fast approaching it is imperative to have the latest information about N1H1 and the influenza. Do you need to have an N-95 respirator and if so when should it be used? The CDC has not released the specific guidance related to the N-95 and H1N1. Facilities will continue to vaccinate residents for the flu and will also vaccinate against H1n1 when the vaccine becomes available.

There are many components to the Infection Control program to assist facilities with education, surveillance, containment and infection control practices. By designating a person and/or committee your program can and will be successful. Come and join us at http://boyerandassociates.webex.com for the webinar September 2, 2009 from 1-3pm (CST).

Kristin Lueschow, RN, RRT,WCC
Clinical Operations Consultant

Supporting WAHSA

2009-08-05T10:39:00.003-05:00

Boyer Supported WAHSA This Weekend by Buying a Weekend Getaway at Lake Artubus

The getaway was a wonderful opportunity to sit down as a team and plan for the year. With all of the new regulations, MDS 3.0 and RUGs IV we want to make sure that we are able to get to all who need assistance. WAHSA and WHCA are partnering to offer MDS 3.0 and RUGs IV training to several different locations across Wisconsin. The training will be a day and a half and pack in the need to know information. A manual will be offered to all facilities to take back to have as a reference.

The ABC's of Medicare: ADR, RAC & ZPICs/Heat

2009-07-29T13:59:00.003-05:00

July 30th from 10-12 (CST) online at http://boyerandassociates.webex.com

This class addresses the current trends in CMS Pre-Payment Medical Review (ADR), Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) and Program Integrity monitoring (Heat/ZPIC). These national programs of Medicare Contracted Review are affecting all facets of care provision within Long Term Care and Outpatient providers. In order to respond to CMS medical review requests, facilities need to understand the timelines, data to provide, documentation and claim processing to be successful!

Survey Readiness & The ABC's of Medicare: ADR, RAC, & ZPIC/Heat,

2009-07-27T12:44:00.003-05:00

Quality of Life & Environmental Changes: What this Means to Your Facility

2009-07-17T10:31:00.003-05:00

Welcome Kristin Our New Wound Care Consultant!!

2009-07-06T10:11:00.000-05:00

Behind the Scenes of the Five Star Quality Rating Program

2009-06-26T14:16:00.007-05:00

Today was the last day to attend a very informational seminar "Behind the Scenes of the Five Star Quality Rating Program" presented by WHCA. The tour started in Eau Claire traveled to Appleton and ended in Brookfield, WI. There was great attendance at all of the locations. Many attendees were very interested in figuring out why they received the rating they did by the state surveyors. This class also focused on how to be proactive in improving a facility's survey score.

As there are three different sections to a state survey- health survey, staffing, and quality measures. Pat Boyer described to the audience how to calculate their scoring in each section by providing a case study and then giving the audience the time to try it on a worksheet.

After having time to work through sample problems the class was presented with more information to help make the best of a survey situation.

Adminstrator Breakfast with Michael Peer, CPA

2009-06-24T11:26:00.007-05:00

Understanding Financial Statements without being an Accountant

June 23rd, 2009 @ 7:30am we had our monthly Administrator Breakfast series. We enjoyed a continental breakfast for the first 15 minutes. Michael Peer, CPA from Kolb & Co was the guest speaker. He spoke on the basics of accounting principles. Explaining the four financial statements; Balance Sheet Income Statement, Statement of Cash Flow and Statment of Changes in Equity in detail. After his 30 minute presentation he took questions from our attendees. The attendees had really great questions that provoked great discussion among the group.

Thank you to all who attended and we look forward to seeing you in September!

Welcome Joy Jordan!!

2009-03-30T17:43:00.002-05:00

Last month, Boyer & Associates was pleased to add Joy Jordan to our staff. Joy comes to us with extensive experience in the compliance world. Joy has most recently been a Federal surveyor and passed the SMQT (Surveyor Minimum Qualification Test in 2007. Joy will be assisting clients with compliance concerns and education. In addiiton, Joy will be coordinating our efforts at the Boyer Executive Development Center. Please join me in welcoming Joy and come by to meet her at the upcoming WHCA and WAHSA conferences.

Five-Star Quality Rating System

2008-12-29T09:42:00.002-06:00

On December 18, 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Five-Star Program. This system has already created a lot of confusion in the industry. The basis for the program is information from:

Annual Surveys -three most recent surveys and revisits
Staffing - Acuity Adjusted
Quality Measures - 10 of 19 utilized for comparison

Although national provider groups have expressed their concerns about the validity and the value of the information in assessing quality provided in facility, we need to understand what the public is seeing. You need to learn all the details of this new system. The following resources are available:

Technical User Guide: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/CertificationandCompliance/Downloads/usersguide.pdf

Nursing Home Compare Website:

www.medicare.gov/NHCompare

Watch for news of a Boyer & Associates training session coming soon on the Five-Star Nursing Home Rating System. In the mean time, please call Pat Boyer with any questions. Boyer & Associates, LLC has an acuity based staffing model available for facilities.

Boyer Development Center Open House

2008-12-16T17:04:00.003-06:00

Our Open House in November was a great success. We had lots of visitors to our new training center and lots of food and refreshments. We kicked off our Development Center with our first workshop on Investigations with 16 participants. We have since had a successful first Web Ex session. Our 2009 1st quarter schedule is now posted and ready to go! We are so excited about our new educational offerings and look forward to working with facilities across the country. Let us know what you think, give us suggestions of workshops you'd like to see and join us in a session soon. Pat

AHCA 2008 Convention

2008-10-02T10:14:00.003-05:00

Come see the Boyer and Associates, LLC Clinical Team at the 59th Annual AHCA/NCAL Convention & Exposition, Nashville, TN, USA on October 5-8, 2008.
Two of the Boyer Nurse Consultants are presenting two educational sessions:

Differentiating Ulcer Types on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 10:30am-11:30am. The presentation will be provided by Evonne Fillinger, BS, RN, WCC, Clinical Operations and Pat Boyer, MSM, RN, NHA, President and Operations Consultant.

Standards of Clinical Practice: Nursing vs. Physician Perspective on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 8:30am-10:30am. The speakers for this presentation include: Gail Robison RN, RAC-CT, Clinical Nurse Consultant along with Bonnie Wirfs MD, CMD, FACP, Geriatric Medicine Physician and Pat Boyer, MSM, RN, NHA, President and Operations Consultant.

We hope to see you all there. For further information about the conference you can look to this webpage: http://www.ahcaconvention.org/

WAHSA conference photo

2008-10-02T09:36:00.000-05:00

Photo from the fall WAHSA conference

WAHSA Fall Conference Activities

2008-09-28T20:04:00.000-05:00

Boyer and Associates, LLC was most committed to the 2008 WAHSA Fall Conference & 28th Annual Exhibitors Forum on September 24-26, 2008 at the Hotel Sierra & KI Convention Center, Green Bay, Wisconsin. The conference theme was Reach Wider: Grow Deeper.

On Thursday, September 25, 2008 Gail Robison RN, RAC-CT, Clinical Operations Consultant along with Bonnie Wirfs MD, CMD, FACP, Geriatric Medicine Physician provided a three part series on Clinical Standards of Practice.

The three part series included:

The ABC’s of Facility Behavior Related to Our Clinical Practice
Reach for Evidence-based Medicine, Clinical Practice and Care and
Make QA Improvements Based on Sound Clinical Practice.

The audience of clinicians and other experts primarily remained through all three separate presentations. This topic is one of critical interest with a tremendous increase in citations related to Quality of Care cross referenced to Standards of Clinical Practice. The foci included how the Medical director and Medical staff assist facility practice through geriatric approaches to care, implementation of evidence based medicine and geriatric principles. The focus of defining the role, responsibilities of the Medical staff and provision of geriatric medicine to improve care in nursing home facilities was of vast interest to the attendees. The nursing components and support of the process improvement through the understanding and utilization of facility/nursing process was extensively addressed to facilitate a successful facility Quality Assurance program based on sound clinical practice and the team working together to ensure the best practiced care for the residents of the facility.

The Boyer and Associates Team provided a booth as part of the Exhibitors Forum on September 25th. As a diamond conference sponsor the Boyer and Associates, LLC also provided the refreshment breaks for Thursday September 25th at 10:30am and 3:30 pm.

Additionally we sponsored the evening entertainment: WAHSA Idol Competition September 25th. The talent in the WAHSA group was unexpected and a difficult challenge for the judges to select the winners.

The 28th WAHSA Conference was most successful and we took pleasure in providing a team approach to support this conference.