Discharge Planning: Compliance with CMS Hospital & CAH CoPs (W5026)-Discharge Planning: Compliance with CMS Hospital & CAH CoPs Presentation

Discharge Planning: Compliance with CMS Hospital & CAH CoPs Presentation

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The HOSPITAL CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION (COPS) 2025 document focuses on discharge planning processes for hospitals, particularly Acute/PPS and Critical Access Hospitals. Led by Laura A. Dixon, the seminar outlines key issues and guidelines established by CMS regarding discharge planning, aiming to enhance patient care and reduce readmission rates. <br /><br />The webinar highlights deficiencies in discharge planning, such as failing to ensure continued home health services, incomplete updates of discharge plans, and lack of communication of medical information to post-acute care (PAC) facilities. Additional shortcomings include failing to review assessments for re-admitted patients and not providing patients with lists of post-discharge service providers.<br /><br />The IMPACT Act, a federal mandate, emphasizes the need for standardized information across post-acute care providers to improve quality and reduce readmissions. Hospitals are required to collect and report data on patients’ functional and cognitive statuses, medical conditions, and impairments, ensuring this data is interoperable to facilitate communication between healthcare providers.<br /><br />Quality measures hospitals must report include functional status changes, skin integrity, medication reconciliation, major falls incidences, and information transfer. Discharge plans should reflect patient-centered goals, and decisions should involve the patient and their caregivers to ensure satisfactory post-discharge outcomes. Documenting all interactions and advice given to patients is required, and hospitals must comply with freedom of choice laws, which prohibit limiting patient choice of post-acute providers due to financial interests. <br /><br />Hospitals are encouraged to regularly assess and update their discharge planning processes, incorporating predictive models for readmission risks and continually working to reduce these through quality initiatives. Overall, the focus is on comprehensive, patient-centered discharge planning that incorporates standardized assessment and quality reporting to enhance care continuity and reduce preventable readmissions.

Keywords

discharge planning

Acute/PPS hospitals

Critical Access Hospitals

CMS guidelines

patient care

IMPACT Act

post-acute care

quality measures

patient-centered goals

readmission reduction