Re: Second try - Surveyors here! Who needs to sign the MDS?

[JEMartin6452]

In a message dated 2/20/2004 6:02:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Sent this yesterday and got only one response.  Surveyors are here - please respond if possible.  Thanks! Currently in the middle of a Public Health survey (Illinois), and they aren't happy that I (RNAC) am the only one signing the MDS.  We have an electronic audit trail that shows each entry made to the MDS/Date/Time/Name/Credentials and have a policy in place to support the electronic signature.  I told them that although other people enter information in the computerized form, I am the one to  review/edit/complete the form.  They were not happy with this explanation.  Page 3-212 of the MDS manual says under Clarifications:  The use of signature stamps is allowed (with policies in place).  This was brought up on a past inspection, at which time no one was physically signing (before my time), and they said that an RN must sign in all places.  Since I have been here (3 yrs) I have been signing in every place needing a signature.  They had been fine with that until today.  Now, they want everybody to sign.  I think I have read in the past on this listserve that other SNF's also have only the RNAC sign without a problem.  Do I have a case or am I out of compliance with the policy?  Please respond ASAP as they are due back in the a.m. with the exit interview at 2 pm.  By the way, they also thought the 5 day MDS had to be done by day 5!  They also couldn't understand why I wasn't doing a 5-day Medicare on my Insurance patients.  They told me you can't just pick any day you want for the reference day.  I had to copy several pages of the manual to show them because they didn't believe me!  Then I made the mistake of giving them the manual to look at when they asked me for a copy.  I think they were embarrassed to be so uninformed.  So, they are probably looking for anything they can think of... At our facility everybody signs actual paper with an actual pen for each section that we gather information for and we do the RAPs for that section as well, generally.  Although I do the delerium and sometimes vision RAPs.