The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) partnered with the Pioneer Network on May 14 to sponsor an online symposium to address dining initiatives that promote culture change in nursing homes and explore the potential and perceived regulatory barriers to making such transformations.
The online forum entitled “Creating Home in the Nursing Home II: A National Symposium on Culture Change and the Food and Dining Requirements” was organized to provide education and support to diverse stakeholders who are involved in culture change initiatives, including providers, researchers, policy makers, and consumers. It was an effort to facilitate dialogue between innovators and regulators on how they can work together “to ensure that regulations do not stand in the way of providing residents of nursing homes with optimal quality of life,” according to the Pioneer Network.
Government officials from CMS, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and representatives from national professional associations with an interest in long-term care were among those who participated.
Small group discussions allowed for questions, concerns and considerations from a variety of perspectives regarding regulatory and clinical recommendations for individualized care and infection control concerns.
“CMS has become a partner in the culture change movement,” said Bonnie Kantor, executive director of the Pioneer Network, which collaborated with CMS on a culture change symposium in 2008.
Deputy Director of the CMS Division of Nursing Homes Karen Schoeneman has been working to encourage meaningful changes in food and dining service that would provide greater quality of life for residents of our country’s nursing homes.
“It was wonderful to see so many experts and stakeholders joining in such an important conversation,” said PHI Organization Culture Change Specialist Kathy McCollett, who was a facilitation guide during the symposium.
“In essence, we are talking about how to be sure that residents in nursing homes rights to self-determination and participation in decision-making are honored in conjunction with issues around food and dining and to regulate food and dining guidelines in a way that protects those rights rather than prohibits them.”
Originally, the dining symposium was to take place onsite in Baltimore in February but was canceled due to weather.
Nine webinars led by national experts, as well as accompanying papers, can be downloaded from the Pioneer Network website for a fee; there is no fee for anyone who registered to attend the Baltimore event.
– by Deane Beebe
