Are You Ready?

The Emergency Preparedness Plan for your facility should be complete, up-to-date, and accessible. Is yours? 

Healthcare facilities bear responsibility for anticipating, planning and preparing for a variety of emergencies that could impact their residents. 

The challenge is in creating an effective plan, identifying all factors to be considered, and creating a reliable system for periodic review and testing, emergency drills, and staff training – all a part of regulatory compliance.

A DIY Guide to Emergency Preparedness

The State Operations Manual Appendix Z states that a comprehensive approach “should encompass the elements for emergency preparedness planning based on the “all-hazards” definition and specific to the location of the facility. The initial step involves completing a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment that is specific to your geographic location and locale. NOTE: You will need to contact your local or regional Emergency Planning Coordinator for tools and guidance in performing this step.  

Once you’ve identified the potential hazards, RTasks can assist in addressing them by walking the user through the creation of an Emergency Preparedness Plan.

RTasks’ Audits provide the questions; your responses auto-create the Policies and Procedures that can be shared with staff for review and acknowledgment. Topics include:

• Communication Plan
• Evacuation Plan
• Missing Resident Plan
• Shelter in Place Plan
• System of Medical Documentation
• Building / Alternate Source/s of Energy
• Volunteers in an Emergency

Those same policies and Procedures are combined into a comprehensive report –  your Emergency Preparedness Plan. This report provides the comprehensive report required for regulatory compliance.

Be ready for the unexpected with RTasks.

RTasks provides the needed assistance for emergency preparedness planning in care facilities of all kinds, and for all emergencies. To keep operations running during disaster, as well as meeting CMS guidelines, it is paramount that a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan be utilized, implemented, and documented. ResiDex Software and the range of RTasks features provides the tools for complete planning, scheduling of emergency tasks, training staff, and assistance during emergencies. 

For more information, please contact our support staff: support@residexsoftware.com.

Updated Referral Forms

Reconciliation involves comparing your list (e.g. current medications, diagnoses, allergies, treatments, therapies) with another to validate that list.

We are updating the referral form to include Treatments and Therapies so that reconciliation with the Primary Care Provider (PCP) can occur when sending MD Orders as well as with regular appointments.

We feel this is a nursing best practice; if you do NOT wish Treatments and Therapies to appear, please contact us and we can update accordingly. 

It’s about time!

scheduling medications needs to be done carefully and conscientiously since your clients’ health and healing are on the line. RTasks continues to improve this function to bring about uniformity and accuracy in your medication management processes.

Recently, our clinical staff has evaluated the way medication times are entered in RTasks. The following are some of our thoughts, including an exciting new update.

Active Date / Time

These fields determine when the first administration for this medication will appear in the E-MAR.

UPDATE: When rescheduling a medication, RTasks previously defaulted the active date and time to the next full hour. This is now changed to default to the current time so that the change becomes effective immediately. This will ensure that medications appear on the Today screen in a timely manner.

End Date / Time (optional)

When the last medication administration for this medication will appear in the E-MAR. This is particularly useful for short-term doses of antibiotics. 

Medication will be provided

This field allows you to select from frequency options for scheduled medications including daily or less frequently. (For PRN meds, this field will allow you to set limits on frequency.) Be aware that this field is referring to how often a medication is given during a week or month.

Time

Enter the time of administration for scheduled medications. Use the ‘add new time’ button to enter additional times per day. Schedule the appropriate provider shift to administer the medication. 

Our staff is always interested in your feedback. Please send your thoughts and questions to: feedback@residexsoftware.com. 

Saving you time!

Saving time is a must when you have more to do than hours in a day. RTasks is in the business of developing tools that can help save you minutes in your workday.

Reassign – Individual services can be reassigned by care staff per the direction of management. Set up specific services (i.e. bathing) with the reassign option and the number of days out allowed. Staff will see the option when they open the service instance on the Today screen. Managers can track the reassignments using the report: Reassigned Services Summary. 

Reschedule – Both medications and services can be rescheduled for a different time slot and/or provider shift from the Schedule screen (found within the resident Medications and Services screens). This option offers nurses a handy way to reschedule a group of medications / services that are scheduled for the same time and provider shift. 

Review – Nurses and managers have the ability to review several items from the +More screen: Administered PRN Medications, Declined Medications, Medications Sent Out of the Facility, and Out of Range Vitals. These review screens provide a way to see the activity and add notes if needed. This is a great way to stay informed!

How is RTasks saving you time throughout your work week? 

Send your feedback to: feedback@residexsoftware.com

What’s up, Doc?

Q: Where can I document quality improvements for staff?

A: Use the Staff Meeting function for this type of documentation.

More info: You can type the improvements in the meeting minutes and push these notes out to staff. Follow this link for further instructions: Staff Meetings.

My Favorite Feature

Tiffany

RTasks is full of many wonderful features to help those who use our software save time. Medication entry and management of medications can be time-consuming from the clinical aspect. When a client returns from the hospital or comes as a new admission, the amount of new medications or medication changes can be overwhelming! RTasks has a wonderful feature called Pharmacy Connect that allows those pharmacies we partner with to import medications right into the system! There is no prompting needed by staff! 

This feature reduces the amount of time spent entering medication data one by one into the software. It also allows for reconciliation of medication data between the pharmacy and RTasks. When a new or changed medication is pushed over from the pharmacy, staff are alerted with a blue flag that indicates the medication needs to be reviewed and verified. This also adds another layer of safety and quality assurance! 

Pharmacy Connect allows you to see duplicate orders and you have the ability to reject them if needed. This is a simple and effective way to see and verify the medication has the correct schedule, instructions and dosage. Pharmacy Connect also aids in boosting the confidence that medications are being entered accurately and instructions are as clear as possible for those who are delegated to assist with medication administration. 

Why not use Pharmacy Connect when you are able to save time, improve quality assurance and safety of the residents when it comes to medication administration and management?