11/12/2026

Ohio RAI Coordinator's November Question of the Month: MDS Coding Guidance

The Ohio Department of Health's November Question of the Month addresses three Minimum Data Set (MDS) coding questions involving the Brief Interview for Mental Status (BIMS), pressure injuries and alarm systems.

• C0200-C0500: Brief Interview for Mental Status
  • Question: Can a provider alter the questions of the Brief Interview for Mental Status (BIMS)? For example, for data item C0200 Repetition of Three Words, could the assessor say shirt, green, and chair instead of sock, blue, and bed?
  • Answer: No, the BIMS questions cannot be altered. Interviewers need to use the words and related category cues as specified for each item. The assessor should administer each interview in the Minimum Data Set (MDS) as instructed on the MDS and in the RAI 3.0 User's Manual.
  • Guidance regarding interview strategies is provided in Appendix D of the RAI 3.0 User's Manual. Page Appendix D-2 states, "Ask the questions as they appear in the questionnaire." The guidance in Appendix D continues with approaches such as unfolding, disentangling, and echoing that can increase the accuracy of the resident's response.
• M0300: Current Number of Unhealed Pressure Ulcers/Injuries at Each Stage
  • Question: I have a resident who had a deep tissue injury (DTI) coded on their Admission MDS as unstageable and as present on admission. The same wound then evolved into an unstageable due to slough after admission. Would this wound continue to be coded "present on admission" or is it now considered facility acquired?
  • Answer: Because this pressure ulcer/injury has not been numerically stageable at any point in the resident's stay (i.e., the resident was admitted with an unstageable ulcer due to deep tissue injury that evolved to a pressure ulcer/injury that was unstageable due to slough or eschar), the unstageable pressure ulcer/injury due to slough continues to be considered present on admission.
• P0200: Alarms
  • Question: I have a question regarding a technologically advanced contactless monitoring system. This is not a device that is attached to the resident but rather is part of the resident's bed. The audible alarm rings at the nursing station, not in the resident's room. Should this be considered an alarm when coding P0200 Alarms?
  • Answer: The device that you described meets the definition of an alarm. Per page P-9 in the RAI 3.0 User's Manual, "An alarm is any physical or electronic device that monitors resident movement and alerts the staff, by either audible or inaudible means, when movement is detected, and may include bed, chair and floor sensor pads, cords that clip to the resident's clothing, motion sensors, door alarms, or elopement/wandering devices."

Nursing home staff involved in MDS coding, including MDS coordinators, social service directors and dietary managers, can subscribe by emailing Cheryl.Moya@odh.ohio.gov with "Question of the Month" in the subject line. Include your name, title, email address and facility name in the body of the email. Staff may also submit MDS coding questions to the same address for consideration in future editions.