by Bruce Silver, MD

Since the last article about CURES 2.0, numerous questions have arisen, particularly as to what is a “facility.” Therefore, I will try to answer that question first.

The CURES 2.0 Program in California is mandatory beginning October 2, 2018.  The following are some of the regulations and policies that must be followed.  

Exceptions in Situations:  There are numerous exceptions to these rules including patients within the facility and certain exceptions for emergency room physicians.  A facility is defined per California regulations and appears to include most hospitals and nursing homes. A recent conference with the California Board noted that as far as nursing homes go, that while most of these may qualify as facilities, one needs to check the specifics of the nursing home.  Please check with the California Board to ascertain if the facility in which you are working is exempted.

by Heather D’Adamo, MD

CALTCM continues to partner with you and your team to bring up-to-date strategies for addressing common and challenging problems in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care.

This year, we are pleased to collaborate with the Northern CA Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association (NorCal GAPNA) to bring you a series of “best practices” that are designed to help you achieve better survey readiness by improving the quality of dementia care of older adults in your nursing home as well as strategizing patient-centered discharge planning and readmission reduction.

by Timothy Gieseke, MD, CMD

One of the blessings of being a Senior Clinician and long standing Medical Director of SNFs has been the luxury of having more time for exploring resources that may improve care in my facilities while spending less time on the direct patient care.  As a member of AMDA, The Society for Post-Acute and Long Term Care, I look forward to the free monthly webinars (https://paltc.org/product-type/archived-webinars).  In August, the webinar was a very practical one on the Utilization of Civil Monetary Penalties to improve the quality of life of residents in LTC facilities.  In California, we have experienced the use of these funds through the Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in California and the Music and Memory Implementation program (attend CALTCM Fall CME program for the latest on this innovation).

by Bruce Silver, MD

The CURES 2.0 Program in California is mandatory beginning October 2, 2018.  The following are some of the regulations and policies that must be followed.

CURES stands for Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System

CURES is the prescription drug monitoring program for the State of California. CURES database contains information about schedule II, III, and IV controlled substance prescription dispensed to patients as reported by those dispensers.

CURES data reflects dispensing information as it is reported to the Department of Justice.  The reporting dispenser creates and owns the prescription records submitted. The Department of Justice does not hold the prescription.