Pioneer Network Announces Webinar Series in Partnership with AAHSA and AHCA

Creating Home: The New Quality of Life Revisions to LTC Surveyor Guidance: What Providers Need to Know!

04/30/2009

(ROCHESTER, NY)  Pioneer Network, the nation's leading resource for the long-term care culture change movement, announces a new webinar series in partnership with American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), and American Health Care Association (AHCA), to help providers prepare for the new survey process and navigate the new CMS interpretive guidelines. The new guidelines will go into effect on June 17, 2009.

This is a unique, valuable and timely opportunity to hear directly from CMS Division of Nursing Homes Deputy Director, Karen Schoeneman, MPA, who developed, wrote, and oversees the enforcement of these new guidelines. She will provide participants with the background, intent and implications of the new guidelines.  She will be joined by Debra Swinton-Spears, MS, Nurse Consultant with CMS Division of Nursing Homes, who authored the food procurement revisions.

The webinar series includes two ninety-minute sessions.  The complete series will be offered twice, on Wednesdays, June 10 and 17, and on Thursdays, June 11 and 18, 2009. The price for the series is $89 for one session or $140 for both.  Space is limited, but the sessions are open to any number of participants who are in one location, and could be projected as a dynamic and interactive webinar series – making this a very affordable and high quality educational opportunity for groups of any size.  Registration and complete details including descriptions of individual sessions are at www.PioneerNetwork.net.

Ms. Schoeneman and Ms. Swinton-Spears will be joined by nationally recognized consultants with significant experience helping nursing homes adopt the resident-centered care delivery systems and personalized physical environments that are the focus of these new guidelines. They will share proven methods and processes for incorporating these culture change practices into every day nursing home life. They will also provide tips on how providers can respond to the new guidelines by implementing cost-effective practices that have the potential to reduce staff turnover and improve resident care.

BACKGROUND

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently issued a new survey and certification letter that revises guidance to surveyors for several requirements related to quality of life and environment. As a result, surveys after June 17, 2009 will be conducted with a sharpened focus on quality of life. These revisions were developed from last year's symposium on person-centered living environments, co-sponsored by CMS and Pioneer Network. The new guidelines enhance instructions to surveyors on how to evaluate compliance with areas such as resident choices about daily schedule, (including when to get up, go to bed, eat, and bathe) visitation issues, homelike environment, food procurement, and expand significantly on guidance related to lighting.


PRESENTERS
Karen Schoeneman, MPA
Deputy Director, CMS Division of Nursing Homes

Debra Swinton-Spears, MS
Nurse Consultant, CMS Division of Nursing Homes

Betsy Brawley, IIDA, AAHID, CID
President, Design Concepts Unlimited

Kim Clayton, BA, NHA, Health Policy Analyst

Barbara Frank, MPA
Co-founder B and F Consulting

Sue Misiorski, BSN
Director of Organizational Culture Change, PHI

LaVrene Norton, MSW
Executive Leader, Action Pact, Inc.


ABOUT PIONEER NETWORK  Pioneer Network was formed in 1997 by a small group of prominent professionals in long-term care to advocate for person-directed care. This group called for a radical change in the culture of aging so that when our grandparents, parents — and ultimately ourselves — go to a nursing home or other community-based setting it is to thrive, not to decline. This movement, away from institutional provider-driven models to more humane consumer-driven models that embrace flexibility and self-determination, has come to be known as the long-term care culture change movement. Our partners and audience are primarily engaged in some aspect of long-term care including CEOs and administrators, consumers and family caregivers, doctors and nurses, direct care providers, government officials, regulators and policy makers, and others who care about, and care for, the aging. www.pioneernetwork.net

ABOUT AAHSA  The members of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) help millions of individuals and their families every day through mission-driven, not-for-profit organizations dedicated to providing the services that people need, when they need them, in the place they call home. Our 5,700 member organizations, many of which have served their communities for generations, offer the continuum of aging services: adult day services, home health, community services, senior housing, assisted living residences, continuing care retirement communities and nursing homes. AAHSA's commitment is to create the future of aging services through quality people can trust. www.aahsa.org

ABOUT AHCA  The American Health Care Association (AHCA) is a non-profit federation of affiliated state health organizations, together representing more than 10,000 non-profit and for-profit assisted living, nursing facility, developmentally-disabled, and subacute care providers that care for more than 1.5 million elderly and disabled individuals nationally. www.ahcancal.org

Special thanks to Commonwealth Fund for their support.  www.commonwealthfund.org

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