One change in clinical strategies for long term care facilities resulting from the pandemic has focused on wound care, reports Senior Writer and Editor Patrick Connole in this month’s cover story. Realizing that an active infection such as COVID affects the respiratory system, providers have developed new guidelines to maintain wounds with the help of extra skin checks and facility-wide education.  Also, as facility shut-downs of visitors have included clinical specialists, they have turned to virtual physician appointments with patients to monitor wounds in consultation with nurses and therapists.

As this is Provider’s official 71st AHCA/NCAL Virtual Convention & Expo issue, we are pleased to recognize recipients of the association’s prestigious National Quality Awards for 2020: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. They will be honored at the convention, which is being held virtually Oct. 8-31, with three live Get-Together Thursdays Oct. 8, 15, and 22.

Our annual List of Exhibitors explains the 10 Expo Halls, the types of companies that are in them, and how visitors can find them throughout the convention and particularly on the live Get-Together Thursdays.
In a special feature, Daniel Gravatt, a trainer of the Certified Surgical Cleaning Technician program, answers questions from providers about what a facility’s cleaning protocol should look like under the pandemic and which supplies should be used in which areas, with particular reference to EPA’s Lists K and N.

While PDPM uses many existing MDS items to determine Medicare billing codes, it also mandates several new ones not previously required under OBRA, which now must expand to include primary diagnosis information in Section 1 and functional abilities in Section GG, according to Jessie McGill, RN, in Focus on Caregiving. Collecting data on functional abilities along with ADLs is complex, she says, and SNFs will need to develop a policy and a process for conducting it.​