ADON / MDS Coordinator

Dallam-Hartley Counties Hospital District; Dalhart (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Dallam-Hartley Counties Hospital District is seeking an Assistant Director of Nursing (ADON)/MDS Coordinator to assist the Director of Nursing in planning, organizing, developing, and directing the Nursing Home Nursing Department. The role ensures accurate and timely MDS assessments, care planning, reimbursement optimization, and compliance with CMS and facility regulations.

The ADON/MDS Coordinator will oversee MDS scheduling, admissions, discharges, and quarterly measures, leading care plan

Qualifications

• Current, unrestricted Texas Registered Nurse (RN) license required.
• Minimum of three (3) years of nursing experience in a long‑term care or skilled nursing preferred.
• Previous supervisory or nursing leadership experience preferred.
• Previous MDS experience strongly preferred.
• Thorough knowledge of CMS MDS, RAI Manual, Medicare, Medicaid, and reimbursement processes.
• Strong understanding of Texas long‑term care regulations.
• Proficient with electronic health records and Microsoft Office applications.

Responsibilities

• Assist in planning, organizing, developing, and directing the overall operations of the Nursing Home Nursing Department to ensure high quality resident care.
• Ensure accurate and timely completion of MDS assessments, care planning, and reimbursement optimization.
• Coordinate MDS scheduling, admissions, discharges, and quarterly measures with a focus on compliance and timelines.
• Lead care plan meetings, involve family and residents, and ensure proper documentation of decisions.

Job description

Job Description

The Assistant Director of Nursing (ADON)/MDS Coordinator assisted the Director of Nursing in planning, organizing, developing, and directing the overall operations of the Nursing Home Nursing Department to ensure the highest quality of resident care. This position is also responsible for ensuring accurate and timely completion of Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments, care planning, reimbursement optimization, and compliance with all federal, state, CMS, and facility regulations.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Check 24‑hour report to see if DC MDS, Change in Status MDS or Entry MDS needs to be complete and to see falls, IR that will need to be on upcoming MDS’s


• The admission process begins when the admission date is known. All preadmission medical records are located and gone through to set up admission MDS (Sometimes this takes days to get other facilities to get this information to us). For every admission, there will be 2 MDSs due on 2 different dates. One is the Entry MDS, due immediately upon admission, and the second is the Admission MDS, due 14 days after admission. Included with this admission assessment, the CAA worksheets, which is writing a detailed small care plan for every area triggered in the admission MDS. Once it is complete, the daily care plan is updated if needed. The MDS will be queued for submission. MDSs are submitted every Friday.


• Every resident has an MDS due quarterly. We also do what we call “off cycle quarterlies” which are additional MDS to capture therapy, outpatient blood, IV’s etc. to raise the rates for the quarter. These are random and the same steps are completed.


• MDS Coordinator organizes schedules and leads all care plans meetings for every resident. Family and residents are invited to attend.


• MDS Coordinator helps coordinate care, DCs to psyche facilities under DON as needed.


• For each MDS, the following steps are completed: The MDS Coordinator must know and be compliant with the RAI manual which has specific instructions/directions/steps that are required to complete each MDS.


• Schedule is set at the beginning of the month and obviously, added to all during the month (Admissions, Discharges, Significant changes all require an MDS that is not already scheduled). Make sure each resident has MDS schedule that follows the RAI manual.


• To start gathering information for the 18 sects to be filled out MDS Coordinator gathers information sheet to guide through the process to make sure not to forget to print any important medical records that are then attached to the file to show proof of decisions made on the MDS.


• MDS Coordinator gathers all information needed from PCC (all assessments, interviews, progress noted, orders, incidents, physician notes) and Meditech (therapy minutes, ED notes, physician visits, labs/imaging). Once this is all located and printed out then start to enter the MDS.


• Once the MDS is complete, submit and immediately update care plans.


• Every Medicaid resident has an additional form that must be filled out for TMHP, which requires listing all meds, etc.


• The process from start to finish takes anywhere from 5‑8 hours to complete.


• During this process of going through the medical record, one may often find areas that need to be fixed, changed, or followed up on. So, it’s not always just a matter of completing the MDS and being done.


• MDS Coordinator is responsible for determining if a resident requires an additional MDS, which includes significant changes. This too also has strict criteria that is explained in the RAI manual.


• MDS Coordinator is responsible for making sure that sections pertaining to dietary, activities and social services is accurate, assessment completed and entered on time.


• The MDS Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that staff is charting accurately to capture status of the resident. This involves reviewing charting for each resident in a timely manner.


• The MDS Coordinator is responsible for reviewing Quarterly Measures to audit and communicate areas that need improvement in the facility.


• MDS Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that every Medicaid applicant obtains Medical Necessity through TMHP. Often this involves communication back and forth with the Medicaid review nurse to try and ensure proper diagnosis/visits/history needed.


• MDS coordinator has daily deadlines that must be met to avoid incompliance with TMHP.


• Every MDS requires assessment to be completed with the MDS. MDS Coordinator is responsible for completing the monthly assessment schedule and the quarterly MDS assessment schedule every month for nurses to know when to complete assessments and myself must do interviews with each resident prior to completing MDS. This is updated daily and audits are done to check for missing assessments.

MDS Coordinator Restorative Duties

• Make sure all residents have up to date restorative care plan and these are kept current when changes are made.


• Meet with rehab director for update on those needing therapy services.


• Meet with restorative aides monthly and chart on restorative residents as needed and monthly.


• MDS Coordinator helps with the day‑to‑day workload of the facility. Often being taken away from the computer to help areas/nurses that need questions or need help with a resident, or situation on the floor.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to walk/stand for extended periods


• Ability to lift 50 lbs.


• Ability to assist with resident care and activities


• Ability to respond to emergencies

Working Conditions

• Frequent interaction with residents, families, physicians, visitors, and regulatory agencies


• May be required to work beyond normal business hours, weekends, holidays and/or participate in an on‑call rotation as assigned.

Job Qualifications

• Current, unrestricted Texas Registered Nurse (RN) license required


• Minimum of three (3) years of nursing experience in a long‑term care or skilled nursing preferred


• Previous supervisory or nursing leadership experience preferred


• Previous MDS experience strongly preferred


• Thorough knowledge of CMS MDS, RAI Manual, Medicare, Medicaid, and reimbursement processes


• Strong understanding of Texas long‑term care regulations


• Proficient with electronic health records and Microsoft Office applications