In McKnight's "Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze on Five Star Staffing," Cheryl Field, Chief Product Officer, voices concerns over increased emphasis on RN staffing, where providers who have four or more occurrences in a quarter with less than 8 hours of RN coverage will automatically be set to a 1 star in staffing, and subsequently lose a star overall in their Five Star Quality Rating.

"Here is my concern as a 30 year RN: we don’t have enough RNs anywhere to meet the new standards. Does this mean more weekend rotations? More contract RN use? More overtime dollars placed on an already resource-starved industry? Is this really the time for CMS to put more squeeze on SNFs? Or will we simply drive more providers from the space?"

Since SNFs can't change CMS dictates, Field suggests that providers look closely at technology to help identify vulnerabilities in their schedule, and she provides other great tips, as well.

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