FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about SureAssess™

1)   How do I enter Med Pass supplements (i.e. the calories/nutrients from a formula such as TwoCal given with medications)?

You can enter Med Pass info just as you would any other supplement, showing the amount and how often it is given over a 24 hour period.  The Med Passes usually would be entered as Snacks.  You can combine all the Med Passes for one day and enter it as one snack or you can enter up to 3 individual Med Passes (AM, PM, and HS Snack) at your discretion. 

If you are using SAS as a module of ThreeSquares® and do not want the info to be included in your regular Snack or Meal delivery reports, then you can enter Med Passes in the “Additional Food Field” in the Assessment tab ‘Detail Food’.  This information will be included in the total intake for the day.

2)   If the Resident is receiving a Tube Feeding, can I enter water flushes into the system?  Will the water flushes count towards fluid intake?

Yes, you can add the water flushes as a separate part of the enteral intake and it will calculate the water from flushes. Therefore you get a complete total of water from the formula(s) as well as the flushes.  
What if a Resident receiving a Tube Feeding is on more than one formula and/or has supplements to the main formula?

Any number of formulas/Enteral items may be entered for a Resident being Tube Fed.  She might be receiving a drip by pump at night of one formula, boluses by day around meals during the day of a different formula and then have protein powder added to supplement according to the PO intake and all this, along with the flushes, can be recorded and will calculate into the Daily Intake to compare to the requirements.

3)   Can I initiate an Assessment now if the date for the next Assessment originally due is still weeks away?  (i.e. Next Assessment was Quarterly but the Resident has gotten dehydrated, was sent to the hospital and needs to be re-assessed now that they are back.)

One only has to change the Assessment type to initiate a different type of Assessment with a new due date.  Go to ‘Tools | Change Assessment Type’ and edit the Resident to have an Assessment type of “Change in Condition” with a new due date of today.

4)   Can I edit a closed Assessment? 

No – once the Assessment is closed it is closed forever.  

What if I forgot a vital piece of information?

You will need to complete a ReAssessment.  Just like in any Medical Record, charting cannot be changed/removed; and we must ‘assume’ that the report from a closed Assessment will have been placed in the chart.  The pathway to accomplish this:  Tools | Change Assessment Type | Select “ReAssessment” | Assign the date.  Most of the information from the previous closed Assessment will carry over; however, you will be able to edit information and add new Notes and/or Interventions.  You could add a “Charted in Error” line to the Notes and explain the reason for the re-assessment

5)   If I can access the web on my PDA, can I use SureAssess with my PDA?  

Yes, you should be able to use SureAssess on most PDA's. It will depend on the PDA.  If the PDA runs a .NET operating system, then it may run SureAssess, however, it may run slowly depending on the amount of memory available and, of course, the speed of your internet connection. Wireless internet connections are always slower than a 'hard wire' connection.  Using your PDA for SureAssess may be an “Emergency” type situation. Since SureAssess is a Web based program, you can use any PC that can get to the internet to download and access SAS even though you never intend to come back to that machine again.  So if your laptop battery is ‘dead’ and you forgot your charger, any machine in a facility can be ‘your’ machine for the moment and you haven’t lost a day of work.  Smaller is not always 'better'; most web based programs perform faster on a Desktop PC, Laptop PC or Tablet PC.  

6)   Can SureAssess run with a Dial-up Modem?

If you can access the web, you can run SureAssess.  However, the speed of the program may be affected by the type of modem you are using.    

7)   Can SureAssess show me a Resident’s micronutrient intake (i.e. vitamins and minerals)? 

SureAssess utilizes USDA DRI Ranges.  To analyze specific micronutrient intake, a customer will need to utilize a Menu Analysis Program such as ThreeSquares®.  This would allow them to look up specific foods within a Resident’s diet.  In fact, SureAssess was designed as a module to accompany ThreeSquares.  

8)   Can diet techs or dietary managers enter resident information?

Diet techs and dietary mangers can have access to the facility information and be able to enter information if you elect that option.  The facility may purchase a login for an additional $15 for this purpose which really enhances the value of the tool for the facility as well as the RD. We encourage the CDMs and diet techs to enter this information so they can be part of the process as well as see trends with the residents. Also, this frees up the RD to focus on the resident and not data entry.

9)   Can diet techs or dietary managers do Nutrition Risk reports?

As the RD for a facility, you decide if the Facility User Login will be a Regular User login or a Power User login.  All User Login’s can enter Resident profile data and print all reports but Power Users can also begin Assessments and generate Nutrition Risk reports.  There is no extra charge for allowing the Facility User ‘power’ rights; it is just a decision of what is best for each facility/user.

Once the information has been entered into the system the report will be able to be generated. The diet techs and CDMs can generate these reports to have them ready for the RD to sign.

 10)   Will my Residents be divided by facility or is it one big list? 

Residents are divided by facility. When an RD gets a login, each facility will be set up individually, making it easy for the RD to look at one facility at a time, run reports and have a task list for each facility.

11)   Can you help me to cost justify this software? 

Justifying this cost to 'administration' should be a simple as showing the time savings which will allow you (1) to see more patients, (2) be more thorough and (3) review more issues. Also having information for each facility available to you from anywhere will allow you to plan your tasks more efficiently and you will  not have to wait until you walk into the door of the facility to know which Residents you will need to see.  We have a letter that you can use to present this idea to the Administrator.  See: Letter to Administrator

12) What do I do when I cannot figure out what I am supposed to do about an action in SAS?