The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has increased its surveillance activity of hospitals and updated its Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for hospitals. Do you think your hospital is ready and knows what to do if a CMS surveyor shows up at your establishment tomorrow?
Food and dietary services are an important part of the CMS survey, and this area has received increased scrutiny especially in the area of Infection control. It’s an important area of hospital compliance.
Food and Dietetic Services Under CMS CoPs
CMS changed the dietary guidelines for hospitals and rewrote every dietary guideline for critical access hospitals which had been effective since April 1, 2015. There are still some hospitals that are working to ensure compliance. Hospitals’ medical staff and boards can credential and privilege qualified nutritional specialists and qualified dieticians to order the patient’s diet, which includes enteral nutrition, therapeutic diet and supplemental feeding. Additional information regarding the C&P process for dieticians has already been provided by CMS.
CMS wanted the CoPs to be less restrictive, so it gave hospitals the flexibility to extend privileges to registered dieticians (RDs), also referred to as licensed dieticians (LDs) and qualified nutrition specialists in some states, in accordance with state law. CMS believes that RDs are best qualified to assess patients’ nutritional treatment plan and design and implement a nutritional treatment plan in consultation with the care team.
CMS includes a qualified dietician (such as an RD) as a practitioner who may be privileged to order patient diets (enteral and parenteral nutrition, supplemental feedings and therapeutic diets). According to CMS, this would free up time for physicians and other practitioners to care for patients. Also, the medical staff (MS) can grant nutritional ordering privileges to nutritional specialist and dietician, with or without appointment to the MS. However, it must be consistent with state law as the state can determine scope of practice. It can also determine the credentials and qualifications for dietitians and nutrition professionals.
Learn More About Dietary Rules and Regs
Attend “CMS Revised Hospital CoP Dietary, CAH Dietary, DNV Healthcare and TJC Standards,” an audio conference sponsored by ProfEdOnDemand and presented by expert speaker Sue Dill Calloway, who discusses the CMS hospital CoP requirements for dietary and food and nutrition services. This session will cover the common deficiencies received by hospitals from CMS in this area. It will also cover The Joint Commission (TJC) provision of care chapter standards related to dietary services, and the TJC dietary tracer information. Sue will also discuss the DNV healthcare dietary standards during this session.
