Welcome, everyone. My name is Mary Pratt.
I work in the Division of Chronic and Post Acute Care
at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
We live in the Center for Clinical Standards And Quality.
We live in a group with our sibling divisions,
called the, oh, golly,
Quality Measurement And Value-Based Incentives Group.
It's a new name.
We were recently reorganized
to reflect some of the new activities underway at CMS.
The-- we really appreciate you all coming
and being present with us today in Baltimore.
We think we have a lot to share with you,
a lot that we have to learn from you.
And I want to emphasize, very much so this morning,
how important it will be to keep communication going
from, you know, the past into the future,
as our programs expand and grow.
Really, it's going to be vital to work in partnership
together with the long-term care hospital groups,
and providers, and staff--
people that are caring for patients.
So this is a great step to see you all here.
We have an incredible line-up of people,
very talented and experts in various areas
that can help answer questions, help give guidance
on areas that may need further explanation.
I think it will be a really fun-filled and packed
day of information.
There'll be some interactive ways
to work with staff that I'll explain
as I go through my introductions and welcome.
I get to do housekeeping stuff, which I love,
as opposed to housecleaning, [Laughter] which I don't love.
I'm always wanting to know what's what and where's where.
There's been an incredible level of effort
to get this training session off and running.
And I really want to thank the crew at CMS
who have a mix of new staff,
as well as seasoned veterans, including myself,
who have been around,
who has been around 30 years at CMS,
to come together to pull this off,
and then working with contractors
and experts in the field to provide information.
What I wanted to talk, just real quickly
about some of the changes that are coming
to the long-term care hospital as a result of the
and the passage this past year.
And that-- it's called the passage
of the
Transformation Act of 2014
We call it the
It's charged with standardizing
data elements and quality measures
for a subset of quality domains across a disparate set
of existing patient assessment instruments
utilized in the post-acute care settings.
Now this includes not only the long-term care hospitals,
but also skilled nursing facilities,
home health agencies, inpatient rehab facilities,
and hospices-- no, not hospices.
That's wrong, not hospices.
Sorry, I didn't check my notes beforehand.
The transformation of the assessments
and the quality measures will allow us to measure
and compare outcomes across the settings,
to enhance Medicare's ability to measure resource use
across settings, and most importantly,
to improve patient safety and outcomes
by facilitating information transfer between
care providers as patients transfer between settings.
I think we all know firsthand how vulnerable people are,
not only in the post-acute care settings,
but especially as they move from one setting,
such as the acute care hospital, into the post-acute care.
Those are vulnerable times.
So moving forward, we're working to improve
the use of information to make this a better
and safer outcome for patients.
So, let's see, specifically in this two-day training event,
we will provide the information necessary
for you to go back to your organizations,
and train others on the impact of new and revised
data requirements associated with the transition from
the LTCH Quality Reporting Program Manual 2.01
to version 3.0, both in terms of
data reported directly to CMS, as well as through
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
via the National Health Care Safety Network.
So the purpose of today's training,
and tomorrow's training is highlighted here.
We're going to focus on presentations
about the new and revised data standards,
going from the different versions of the manual
and the datasets.
And we will focus on the long-term care hospital
Quality Reporting Program quality metrics
that are reported to CMS, via the CDC's NHSN network,
the National Health Care Safety Network.
So the training is based on a train-the-trainer concept,
and our goal, as I said,
was to equip you with information
to take back to organizations
in adopting new and revised data standards
that will become effective-- and this is important--
April 1st, 2016.
The action planning throughout the day,
you'll find in your worksheets action planning--
or in your welcome packet--
you'll find the Action Planning Worksheet.
What we're hoping to see is the use of the worksheet
to help record the steps that you decide to take
back to others to educate in your organization
about the new changes.
And then, following each presentation,
they'll spend a few minutes planning next steps,
and the speakers will prompt everyone
to think about your own personal action plan
at the conclusion of their presentations.
We consider these educational needs
as well as any processes or work flows
that may need to change
in order to meet the data collection needs
of each section of the dataset.
So that will be important conversations, I think,
to have not only here, but back at your organization.
And the goal of the exercise is to help focus
your ideas and thoughts into the steps you'll need to take
to accomplish your goals.
There will be interactive coding scenarios--
sorry, my mouth is not working today-- [Laughter]
and different color-coded response cards
in the welcome pack,
and the speakers will present scenarios.
And I think we'll walk through these more in detail
as the presentations go on,
so we'll have practices throughout the day.
So, in terms of questions and answers,
we are asking that you do not ask questions
during the presentations,
but instead, please write down your questions
on the cards and drop them into baskets at your tables.
Maybe there's not baskets,
but at least there's a pile there--
or maybe someone will give better instructions
on what to do with the cards.
Also, when you write down your questions,
please include your name,
and your email address with your question,
and we can do further follow-up, if necessary as well.
So at the end of each session,
a runner will pick up the cards
and provide them to the presenter
that had addressed the topic of interest
and then we will spend time, if there's remaining time
in that session, or later in the day.
Let's see...
There will be evaluations,
and we ask that you complete the evaluation forms each day
and hand them in on Day 1 and at the end of Day 2.
And in terms of the timeline for posting training materials
to the CMS website, you'll receive an email
when the training material is ready to be viewed.
For the last housekeeping items, before I introduce Mark,
are, of course, to please silence your cell phones.
And lunch will occur, I believe, around noon,
a little after.
And there are various restaurants in the area,
and there's a buffet downstairs.
These are the housekeeping items I love.
And we will make our best to hold to the timeframes listed,
because I'm out of time.
I'm already getting us behind. But that's okay.
I hope you all found the restrooms
and the coffee, and tea that's out back.
Also for everyone's information,
there are people here in yellow shirts.
They are supporting our work today,
and they will be available.
Please go to them to ask any questions,
or if you need any assistance or reasonable accommodations.
We have a number of slides to present, and information,
if there are any special needs you have,
and requirements or requests about the slides,
please again, let us know.
And I'm going to, I think,
turn it over now to Mark Stewart,
who's our MC for the day,
and he will undoubtedly show us a great time.
So thank you again, and welcome to Baltimore.