Your boss?

Technically, I answer to the DON (she is back...she has quit and been re-hired twice since I was hired). I also have a corporate supervisor in some far off land who is really good about helping with questions and all of the out of the ordinary things that pop up.

My supervisor is the Administrator although she has had the DON complete my yearly evaluations. I think that is changing this year and the administrator is going to do it. Neither one really knows MDS though.

My administrator at both homes I work at which is good as I am very times "at odds" with nursing due to their lack of dcoumentation and strange beliefs regarding Medicare rules and needs. Yup, people (staff) hate to see me comming as I am always asking for more, no matter how much I talk about why these things must be be present in the record or it did not happen, little things, like education for discharge, behavior issues,etc, back up documentation for I and A's, I seem to be the only person seeking these things out on a regular basis (I love that icon) I am also,at one SNF, constantly in battle with the therapy department regarding treatment, they like to cut people, Therapy is controlled by hospital Rehab and not under the guidence of our admisitrator, so it really helps to have the administrator to back me up when I go to battle.

What is an MDS Nurse?

I am the DON at our facility. I have more experience and knowledge when it comes to the MDS. I have a medicare nurse which handles all the short term rehab admits and their MDS's; and I also have a MDS coordinator that handles the LTC. I am their boss and complete their reviews. I also monitor their calendar and MDS dates on a daily basis.

My supervisor is my DON- she completes my evaluation on a yearly basis. She knows little about the MDS but is always asking questions and willing to learn. She is aware that they can be a pain in the ass but also knows it pays her bills. In our facility we have the four of us- DON, ADON, and me and another MDS who are the Fab Four who work together and get the job at hand completed. If one of us goes all of us will go!

The MDS Coordinators report directly to the administrator, although they receive guidance from internal consultants who also influence how they do on their annual evaluations.

I answer to the DON and she does my eval.

I answer the the Administrator

I answer to the Administrator and he does my evaluations. The Administrator knows if the money goes up or down and that is about it.

I've worked in many different SNF's. Most of the time the MDS coordinator answers to the Administrator. At my current facility, my MDS people answer to me (the DNS). Since I used to be a PPS MDS coordinator with an average weekly Medicare census of between 22 and 27, I know they have plenty of time to do their average weekly 4.

I work at a 120 bed SNF facility. The DoN is my boss, monitors my calendar and does my evaluation.