Getting ready for MDS 3.0: patient evaluation takes a new turn.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has recently revised the Minimum Data Set (MDS), a standardized assessment tool that the agency requires all nursing facilities to perform on all residents. Changes in the patient-assessment and data-collection processes of the new version, MDS 3.0, will be implemented on October 1, 2010, and will provide practitioners with enhanced information that optimizes their care of long-term care residents.