Illinois-based Crescent Care, which officially opened its first facility last year, has also looked to bring in outside help to improve its MDS assessments going forward. Rather than pay rising wages, the operator doesn’t have an MDS coordinator on staff — instead preferring to get support from Zimmet Healthcare Services Group.
“The staffing crisis has caused everyone to get a little bit creative as far as allocating their staff,” Crescent Care CEO David Glat told SNN.
Vincent Fedele, Zimmet partner and director of analytics, said the shift to PDPM right before COVID-19 combined with the staffing shortage has led to many operators incorrectly filling out or missing MDS reports and therefore missing significant dollars in reimbursement.
“I think there’s just less nursing,” he explained. “It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy, you get people leaving the floor and you grab a nurse who is used to more administrative work. It’s challenging.”
Seeing a need in the industry among skilled nursing operators, Zimmet started offering temporary MDS staffing assistance last winter and the service has taken off since then.
