Information Bulletin 19-02

NH - 183
BCH - 77
Hospitals with Swing Beds - 8

Update: MDH Nursing Home Facility Reporting Related to Federal Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation, or Mistreatment; and Minnesota Vulnerable Adults Act

Purpose

The purpose of this information bulletin is to inform nursing homes, boarding care homes and hospitals offering Medicare swing bed services of updates to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Nursing Home Incident Reporting (NHIR) System.

These updates are necessary for consistency with reporting requirements found in state law under Minnesota’s Vulnerable Adult Act and federally under regulations at CFR 483.12 for certified skilled nursing facilities (SNF), nursing facilities (NF) and for hospitals offering Medicare swing bed services.

Implementation Date

May 2, 2019

Updates

MDH’s online reporting system is found at Nursing Home Incident Reporting. 
The following changes have been made:

• The reporting system was updated to reference revised federal requirements for reporting. See: Nursing Home Incident Reporting. 
• To meet the requirement that inspections are unannounced, MDH will no longer provide email notices to facilities that reports received have been closed out.
• The MDH communication sent to the facility after an incident is received has been updated for consistency with requirements. This message is stated below in italics.
• A facility may receive up to three email communications from MDH after a report is submitted.
• The initial email communication will be sent on the day the report is submitted.  This communication will indicate the report has been received.
• Two additional email communications with the same message will be sent on the third and fourth day after the day the report is submitted IF the five-day investigative report has not been received by MDH. The fourth day email will conclude MDH’s communication to the facility.
• For past reports submitted prior to May 2, 2019, these reports will fall off the facility list if the five-day investigative report has been submitted.

Message sent after report submitted and on day three and four if the five-day report has not been received by MDH:

On (date/time), the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) received your initial report. As a reminder, you are also required to submit your facility investigation within five working days of your initial report. If you fail to submit a report within five working days, you may be cited for a violation of this federal reporting requirement.

Each facility is expected to be in compliance with federal and state regulations.

Both the initial information and five day reports submitted undergo review by MDH. Based on either of these reviews, an unannounced on-site inspection may take place to verify compliance with federal and state requirements.

To meet the requirement that inspections are unannounced, MDH will no longer provide email notices to facilities that reports received have been closed out.

Thank you for your assistance.