This is a recording of a live webinar delivered on Feb. 25, 2025.

Every hospital that accepts Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement must follow the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for all patients. This program will cover the nursing services section in the hospital CoPs manual. Facilities with Deemed Status accredited by other organizations, such as the Joint Commission, Health Care Facility Accreditation Program, CIHQ, and DNV Healthcare must also follow these regulations. 

 

This program will discuss the often-cited areas of the CMS CoPs manual involving nursing care to include plans of care, staffing, policy changes, when a registered nurse is required in an outpatient department, documentation, supervision, nursing leadership, verbal orders, and more.  

This program will also reference the ever-changing non-discrimination regulations of Section 1557 and briefly mention other sections of the manual that impact nursing.

Laura A. Dixon, BS, JD, RN, CPHRM


Laura A. Dixon served as the director of risk management and patient safety for the Colorado Region of Kaiser Permanente. Prior to joining Kaiser, she served as the director, facility patient safety and risk management and operations for COPIC from 2014 to 2020. In her role, she provided patient safety and risk management consultation and training to facilities, practitioners, and staff in multiple states.

Dixon has more than 20 years of clinical experience in acute care facilities, including critical care, coronary care, peri-operative services, and pain management. Prior to joining COPIC, she served as the director, Western region, patient safety and risk management for The Doctors Company in Napa, California. In this capacity, she provided patient safety and risk management consultation to the physicians and staff for the western United States.

As a registered nurse and attorney, Dixon holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Regis University, RECEP of Denver, a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Drake University College of Law, Des Moines, Iowa, and a Registered Nurse Diploma from Saint Luke’s School Professional Nursing, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is licensed to practice law in Colorado and California.

This speaker has no real or perceived conflicts of interest that relate to this presentation.

At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to:

• Recall that CMS has a section on nursing services that every hospital must follow, even if accredited.
• Describe the three different timeframes in which all medications must be administered.
• Discuss that nursing care plans are a frequently cited area by CMS.  
• Explain the requirements for verbal orders.  

The Georgia Hospital Association Research & Education Foundation is an approved provider of nursing home administrator credits as a professional trade association in long term care under Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 393-13-.02, (1) (a).  Approved for 1.5 contact hours. 

By attending Nursing: CMS CoP Standards for Hospitals Webinar offered by Georgia Hospital Association, participants may earn up to 1.5 ACHE Qualifying Education Hours toward initial certification or recertification of the Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) designation. Attendees who wish to have the hours applied toward ACHE Qualifying Education credit must self-report their participation by logging into their MyACHE account and selecting ACHE Qualifying Education Credit.

Please complete the course evaluation to earn your certificate of participation.

Contact us at education@gha.org with any questions.