sweetsugar

Latest Activity

1. What to do? Alcoholic and discharge too soon

   sweetsugar replied to annaliz's topic in Home Health

   I had a patient who met me drunk and naked at the front door every time I went to see him. I kinda drew the line when he pee'd on me, though.

2. Home health and family life?

   sweetsugar replied to vbgniner's topic in Home Health

   11-15 patients a day? I call that "drive-by nursing". Sorry, just my humble opinion . . .

3. problem in home health. mandated reporter issue?

   sweetsugar replied to GapRN's topic in Home Health

   From personal experience, if the patient is A&OX4, oftentimes, nothing happens with the State. They will talk to the resident; and, if the resident feels okay with her environment, they are going to back out quietly. What happens to you is anot...

4. Documentation altering/tampering...Is this the norm???

   sweetsugar replied to RollerRN's topic in Home Health

   If anyone can prove that their OASIS answers are, indeed, being changed--I would definitely contact a Qui Tam lawyer. With regard to changing benign hypertension to malignant hypertension, this is a prime example of "upcoding" to increase HHRG score...

5. Need advice on new job offer

   sweetsugar replied to Curious1alwys's topic in Home Health

   KateRN is absolutely correct with regard to the OASIS collection rules by Medicare. However, 1) the weekend RN should have the option of completing a skilled nurse visit along with the consents and admission paperwork. Then, the RN picking up the cas...

6. Need advice on new job offer

   sweetsugar replied to Curious1alwys's topic in Home Health

   I can relay from personal experience as someone who did call every other weekend at a rural home health agency--it was a nightmare. I do not understand why but it seemed that the worst of the worst patients came out of the hospitals on Friday and we...

7. You may not be homebound if....

   sweetsugar replied to itsgr82cre8's topic in Home Health

   You might not be homebound if your nurse has to schedule your visits each time before 11:00 a.m. so that you can drive yourself to the casino for lunch and a little slot machine action

8. A Must Read for Every Home Health Nurse

   sweetsugar posted a topic in Home Health

   To all home health nurses who have ever felt pressured by office staff regarding whether or not a patient needs recertified or not, the attached MedPAC Report to Congress dated March 2011 should shed some new insight for field RNs. Also, to field RN...

9. Government Investigation of Amedisys

   sweetsugar replied to sweetsugar's topic in Home Health

   I agree fully with your last comment--if we are dealing only with skilled nursing visits. I would have NEVER left home health nursing if all I had to do each day was skilled nurse visits. However, home health agencies have drifted towards a nurse c...

10. Government Investigation of Amedisys

    sweetsugar replied to sweetsugar's topic in Home Health

    As I said previously . . . we will let the Department of Labor decide about that. As I recall--when I worked at the hospital, if I needed to spend extra time documenting after a crazy shift, I got paid for every minute of my shift. I did not clock ...

11. Government Investigation of Amedisys

    sweetsugar replied to sweetsugar's topic in Home Health

    We will just have to wait and see what the Department of Labor's viewpoint is on the matter of unpaid overtime. I believe any patient in the home would rather a nurse pay attention to them during the visit rather than trying to get documentation com...

12. Government Investigation of Amedisys

    sweetsugar replied to sweetsugar's topic in Home Health

    Actually, just Google the following: Staff Report on Home Health and the Medicare Threshold. That will bring up the October 3, 2011, House & Senate Finance Committee's full report. Very interesting reading.

13. Government Investigation of Amedisys

    sweetsugar replied to sweetsugar's topic in Home Health

    I did not realize that Gentiva had been fined for fraud. LHC in Louisiana received a $65 million fine in September 2011 for fraud. Both of these fines do not have anything to do with the October 3, 2011, report from the House and Senate Finance Com...

14. S. 4040 - Importance of this Legislation

    sweetsugar posted a topic in Activism

    This is going to be a rather strange post, I fear. I am taking a global health class right now in pursuit of my masters degree. The topic at hand is health disparities between wealthy and poor countries. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying i...

15. charting pen/marker

    sweetsugar replied to hhrnohio's topic in Home Health

    Goodness . . . they are still selling that Scantron system? I wanted to poke my eyes out with that stupid pen by the end of the day!