Improved CMS Database

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS, is finding both increasing value and consumer requests in being transparent to the public, and thus have increased their information sharing on the CMS.Gov website.  Published in a QSO Memo (Ref: QSO-21-12-AO/CLIA, dated January 19, 2021, titled “Posting AO Performance Data & Complaint Surveys”), CMS will now be providing readers new and more information on their website. This improved CMS database will be available to all readers that you will likely find exceedingly valuable and equally as interesting to study.

Improved CMS Database

New information you will now get to see, the latest on:

• Deficiency findings after complaints
• A list of providers out of compliance
• Performance data

The link published in this QSO Memo, and link duplicated here, provides entry into the database of their findings in a searchable format.  The entertaining functionality of this is that you can search by provider type, date range, or even just by state (you can see how you compare statewide).

We did a nationwide search for hospitals to identify the most frequently scored tags on CMS hospital surveys that you should find fascinating.

The Top 10 CMS A-Tag findings, along with the percentage of the CMS surveys where the particular tag was scored, are:

1. A-0144 Care in a safe setting 8.6%
2. A-0395 Supervision of nursing care 7.8%
3. A-0115 Patient rights 6.5%
4. A-0749 Infection control 5.9%
5. A-0405 Admin of drugs 3.7%
6. A-0396 Nursing care plan 3.6%
7. A-0145 Free from abuse/harassment 3.1%
8. A-2400 Compliance with EMTALA regs 3.1%
9. A-0043 Governing body 3.1%
10. A-0385 Nursing services 3.0%

As we took particular interest in this new CMS site function, we believe you will too and encourage you to also search this site to find your own state’s most frequently cited issues.  We ran a few different states to find their individual most frequently cited issues, but they do vary, as different state’s agencies have different foci.

Knowing what the top deficiencies are in your state, might help you prepare for a CMS survey, since they are conducted by the surveyors from your own state.