CMS Releases Competency Assessment Toolkit for Care Centers

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Jonathan Lips

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a Nursing Home Staff Competency Assessment toolkit designed to help nursing home frontline and management staff evaluate their skills.  You can find these materials posted in the Downloads section of the CMS Civil Money Penalty Reinvestment Program webpage.  

There are three competency assessments in print and electronic formats:

• Certified Nursing Assistants/Certified Medication Technicians
• Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses and Registered Nurses
• Assistant directors of nursing, directors of nursing and administrators.

As CMS describes it: “The assessments pose questions about behavioral, technical and resident-based competencies and should be completed as needed. This toolkit …. can support your nursing home’s existing learning and development standards of practice. The toolkit also includes an Instruction Manual to support managers in implementing the assessment. The guide provides resources, including: videos; talking points; an email memo; a poster; an assessment completion tracker; a manager’s guide to meeting one-on-one with staff; and an assessment results worksheet to compile and analyze results.”

The toolkit’s release marks the start of a three-year initiative designed to improve residents’ quality of life by equipping nursing home staff, administrators and stakeholders with technical tools and assistance to enhance resident care. Under the new Civil Money Penalty Reinvestment Program (CMPRP), CMS will collaborate with industry experts, including LeadingAge, to develop an ongoing series of toolkits and technical assistance intended to help nursing home staff and management improve care delivery and thereby residents’ quality of life.

Additional program activities will include (1) Employee satisfaction toolkits, (2) Breakthrough Communities, in which nursing homes work with their peers to test interventions that will lead to improvement in quality of life and quality of care for residents of nursing homes, and (3) one-to-one, customized technical assistance to address unique barriers in improving dementia care.

CMS announced this package of initiatives on Nov. 20 and our team has not yet had the opportunity to review the staff competency materials. We will provide additional information to members in the weeks ahead.  If you have questions or comments, please share them with me at jlips@leadingagemn.org or 651-603-3510.