Upcoming Changes to Reporting Requirements for Nursing Facilities

• By: Ben Hawkins
• On: 11/10/2022 13:28:35
• In: Quality/Regulatory

On behalf of the Maine Health Data Organization (MHDO), an independent agency in the Maine State government, I want to provide you with important information about a new health care quality reporting requirement that impacts Maine's nursing facilities and goes into effect July 1, 2023. MHDO is the State Agency responsible for the new reporting requirement, which can be found in 90-590 CMR Rule Chapter 270 – Uniform Reporting System for Health Care Quality Data Sets.  

Prior to 2019, Maine Hospitals were the only facilities impacted by the requirements in Chapter 270. However, that changed in 2019 when Chapter 270 was updated and now affects nursing facilities. Specifically:

"2. E. Each nursing facility shall make a quarterly submission to the MHDO of data, separated by month, for Clostridium difficile Lab ID Events for all facility-wide residents (FacWideIN) in accordance with NHSN specifications beginning July 1, 2020. (Measure steward - NHSN)."
                                                                
"2. H. Each health care facility (include nursing facilities) shall also authorize the MHDO to have access to the NHSN for facility-specific reports of data submitted for any healthcare associated infection measure under a state or federal mandate, for the purpose of public reporting."

To minimize the administrative burden during the early years of the pandemic, the MHDO board decided to suspend the enforcement of Section 2. E. Now, over two years after the original effective date, MHDO is prepared to start accessing Clostridium difficile Lab ID Events for Maine's nursing facilities from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) effective July 1, 2023.    

To assist your facility in preparing to meet this new State reporting requirement, MHDO is developing a Fact Sheet that explains the new reporting requirement, timeline for implementation, important dates and deliverables, links to NHSN's specifications manual , and the specific steps your facility must take with NHSN to allow MHDO to authorize your Clostridium difficile Lab ID Events data directly from NHSN. MHDO plans to e-mail the Fact Sheet on December 1, 2022, along with information on a training session that the MHCA plans to do early next year in collaboration with the MHDO.