Moving Towards MDS 3.0

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Starting 2006, the MDS 3.0 draft version is being evaluated on-site in a national sample of community nursing homes in 8 States (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, California and Texas) and in a separate sample of twenty Veteran Administration nursing homes to ensure that the instrument is feasible to collect and improve resident assessment. The reasons for the MDS 3.0 revision are broad:

• To make the MDS more clinically relevant, while still achieving the federal payment mandates and quality initiatives;
  
• To improve ease of use and efficiency;
  
• To improve MDS accuracy;
  
• To integrate selected standard scales; and
  
• To elicit resident voice by introducing interview questions.

Although an implementation date for MDS 3.0 has not been set, CMS is committed to completing the national evaluation by the end of 2007

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NursingHomeQualityInits/25_NHQIMDS30.asp#TopOfPage