Published November 26, 2018

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced upcoming efforts to support better care and outcomes for nursing home residents under the Civil Money Penalty Reinvestment Program (CMPRP). This three-year initiative aims to improve residents’ quality of life by equipping nursing home staff, administrators and stakeholders with technical tools and assistance to enhance resident care.

As part of the CMPRP, CMS will develop a variety of work products for nursing home professionals, such as staff competency assessment tools, instructional guides, training webinars and technical assistance seminars. These supports aim to help staff reduce adverse events, improve dementia care and strengthen staffing quality, including reductions in staff turnover and enhancing performance.

The CMPRP is funded by federal civil money penalties, which are fines nursing homes must pay CMS by law when they are noncompliant with certain regulations and there are serious concerns about the safety and quality of care they provide. Under this new program, CMS will collaborate with industry experts to develop an ongoing series of toolkits and technical assistance intended to help nursing home staff and management improve care delivery and thereby residents’ quality of life.

Training, education and a competency assessment are components of the Facility Assessment RoP (Phase 2) and ideally focus on a facility-wide review. CMS released its first toolkit in the CMPRP series, the Nursing Home Staff Competency Assessment and its supporting materials designed to help nursing home frontline and management staff evaluate their skills. It includes several questions to gauge staff knowledge about behavioral, technical and resident-based capabilities. Additional toolkits will follow under the series heading “Building on a Culture of Quality: Your Guide to Resident-Centered Care.”

We encourage you to reference your Facility Assessment to ensure it has direct linkage when utilizing these competency tools. Please reach out to us if you have questions or need assistance.

Amy Lee, RN, MSN, CRRN, QCP
President/CEO