CMS Emphasizes Need for Supervision of Smoking Residents

CMS has released a memo to all state survey agency directors that re-emphasizes the need to adequately supervise residents who smoke. The memo, titled "Alert: Smoking Safety in Long Term Care Facilities," reminds facilities of the following obligations:

Facilities must include assessment of smoking areas and provision of emergency equipment in the designated smoking areas. Facilities should also document the means by which individual residents are assessed as safe to smoke without supervision.

The memo was drafted in the wake of the agency being alerted to an incident in which a resident died after accidentally setting her clothing on fire while smoking.

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