Laura A. Dixon
Every hospital that accepts Medicare and Medicaid must comply with the CMS discharge planning guidelines. These standards must be followed for all patients and not just Medicare or Medicaid. CMS published changes to the discharge planning standards in February 2020 but has yet to publish revised interpretive guidelines and survey procedures to match the new regulations.
This program will briefly discuss the Impact Act and how it affects hospital discharge planning. It requires hospitals to assess a patient at admission, using standardized information to assist patients with post-discharge care such as home health, skilled nursing facilities, long term care hospitals and inpatient rehab facilities. Information on all four must be provided to the patients except for Critical Access Hospitals. Medical records must include the discharge planning process, discharge instructions, discharge planning requirements. This program will address transfers to other facilities, assessment of readmissions within 30 days, caregiver rights and recommendations, reduction of factors that lead to preventable readmissions, timely discharge planning, and more.
Discharge Planning Conditions of participation for Critical Access hospitals will be discussed briefly. Those regulations follow the Acute hospitals requirements.
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Laura A. Dixon served as the Director, Facility Patient Safety and Risk Management, and Operations for COPIC from 2014 to 2020. In her role, Ms. Dixon provided patient safety and risk management consulting and training to facilities, practitioners, and staff in multiple states. Such services included the creation of and presentations on risk management topics, assessment of healthcare facilities; and development of programs and compilation of reference materials that complement physician-oriented products. Ms. Dixon has more than twenty years of clinical experience in acute care facilities, including critical care, coronary care, peri-operative services, and pain management. Prior to joining COPIC, she served as the Director, Western Region, Patient Safety and Risk Management for The Doctors Company, Napa, California. In this capacity, she provided patient safety and risk management consultation to the physicians and staff for the western United States.Ms. Dixon’s legal experience includes representation of clients for Social Security Disability Insurance providing legal counsel and representation at disability hearings and appeals, medical malpractice defense, and representation of nurses before the Colorado Board of Nursing. As a registered nurse and attorney, Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Regis University, RECEP of Denver, a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Drake University College of Law, Des Moines, Iowa, and a Registered Nurse Diploma from Saint Luke’s School Professional Nursing, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is licensed to practice law in Colorado and California.
