Long-term care ombudsman

Advocate (supporter) for nursing home and assisted living facility residents who investigate and work to resolve problems between residents and nursing homes or assisted living facilities. This individual monitors federal and state regulations that pertain to long-term care facilities, provide information to the public about the elderly in facilities, and train volunteers to help with this program. Also called ombudsman . See ombudsman .

Longer term care minimum data set

Core set of screening and assessment elements of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI). This assessment system provides a comprehensive, accurate, standardized, reproducible assessment of each long-term care facility resident’s functional capabilities and helps staff to identify health problems. This assessment is performed on every resident in a Medicare and/or Medicaid-certified long-term care facility including private pay.

Looping

The automated diagnosis-related group (DRG) grouper process (computer software program that assigns DRGs) that searches all listed diagnoses for the presence of any comorbid condition or complication or searching all procedures for operating room procedures or other specific procedures.