Okay, so I just finished the Blueprint for OASIS Accuracy seminar and something dawned on me today. We're going through the POC synopsis, section M2250, and I realize that so much of what we can "claim" depends entirely on the physician returning communication regarding the ordered plan of care. And that technically we are supposed to be either obtaining verbal/phone orders or waiting for a signed 485 before we go back to the home, etc., etc. Well, we all know how often the physicians return a call or fax in a timely manner, and generally we do what we need to do for the patient. But I'm freaking livid now that basically, CMS paints us a handmaidens to the physicians. We can't even take credit for assessing a patient's pain level unless the physician ordered it. What the h3ll kind of Barbie do I look like? There is no notion of collaborative practice whatsoever allowed in this entire industry. It all falls to "the physician-ordered plan of care." Hello, it's more like a physician-approved plan of care.
I don't know why this suddenly dawned on my today and why it's gotten under my skin so badly, but I am irked. Really, really irked. This is what's wrong with healthcare in America--putting physicians in charge of everything, whether they want it or are qualified for it. We will never move forward until health care is a collaborative effort between physicians, nurses, therapists, and pharmacists. I can't think of a single physician I have ever known or heard of that is a master of all these disciplines and is qualified to *order* rather than *approve* of each disciplines "recommendations."
