How many MDS coders

[homenurse4u]

My company is going through some changes. I was wondering how many MDS nurses your facility has and how many resident's you have. We have approximately 120 beds and 3 MDS nurses. We do the diagnosis coding, MDS assessment, and care plans. Is this normal or does other facilities have more or less?

[JoyinNsng]

Hi homenurse4u,

I am a MDS RN in an SNF and there are only 2 of us in the MDS for a facility with 120 beds. One is a part time MDS RN Coordinator (who used to be the full-time Coordinator) and at present, I am the full time MDS RN. I work 8a-5p twice a week, and 3-11 shifts three times a week whenever the other coordinator is in the SNF working 8-5pm. We don't work at the same time, so basically I'm on my own during the shift except when I come in during the 3-11 shift where we see each other for like 2 hours max, and discuss items when needed. We do the careplans, MDS assessments, coding the diagnosis, doing the PASRR for the new patients and for those with significant changes, we do the admission diagnosis within 2 days for the newly admitted patients to be needed by the Admissions Coordinator for insurance approval purposes. We have 2 days a week where we have care plan meetings with the patients and/or family members with at least 3-4 patients a day.. we also have a day for Rehab meeting, and another day for Weights Variance. So technically, we have 4 days for meetings alone which consists between 30 minutes to 2 hours max..depending on the concerns. One of us is doing the Medicare assessments, and the other the Quarterlies, Comprehensive/DC tracking/ET. If one is not swamped with work, then she helps out the other one. IF you have 3 Full-Time MDS Nurses in your 120 bed facility, then you are lucky. Not sure if that's good enough, but in our facility, a little extra help is appreciated. :)

[Psychtrish39, BSN, RN]

Gosh I am only MDS coordinator in a 100 bed facility and our census usually is 92 and about 5-10 Medicare A. My facility is budgeted for a half time but they can't find another MDS coordinator.

[glm777, BSN, RN]

We have a 175 bed facility with only 2 full time MDS nurses. Our medicare census usually runs in the low 20s. All PPS assessments are done by the other full time MDS nurse as well as daily PPS meetings, weekly Medicare meeting and the electronic tracking of MDSes. I do all the long term care MDSes, all ICD10 coding, care plans according to the CAAs, send care plan letters, run CP meetings for 4 units, maintain the MDS schedule, attend weekly skin, weight and wound meeting, attend clinical rounds every day and assist with feeding! I'm feeling very overworked right now!