Page 32 - Tale of Transformation

About The Authors
Carmen S. Bowman, MHS, ACC is the owner of the consulting business, Edu-Catering: Catering Education for Compliance and Culture Change in LTC, which provides culture change consultation to nursing homes. She is a nationally-recognized expert in culture change, and is a frequently invited speaker at national industry conferences. She has also made several presentations at Pioneer Network conferences. Carmen was a Colorado state surveyor for nine years, surveying nursing homes, assisted living residences and adult day programs. She is a former policy analyst with CMS where she taught the national CMS Basic Surveyor Training Course. She presented the surveyor segment of the 2000 CMS satellite broadcast “Surveying the Activities Requirements in Nursing Homes” and the 2002 CMS satellite broadcast “Innovations in Quality of Life - the Pioneer Network.” The first certified activity professional to become a state surveyor and work at the federal level, Carmen served on the CMS Activities Panel rewriting the interpretive guidelines for tags 248 and 249 and on the CMS Activities RAP Workgroup. Carmen holds a Master’s degree in Healthcare Systems and Certificate in Gerontology from Denver University. Carmen is a Certified Validation Worker, Certified Eden Associate and Eden Mentor. In 2002, she co-founded the Colorado Culture Change Coalition and serves on its advisory board. She recently authored five culture change workbooks for Action Pact on Coalition Building, Living Life to the Fullest, Quality of Life Regulations, Regulatory Support for Culture Change and Person-directed Care Planning. Currently serving as a contractor with CMS, she is assisting to develop a culture change tool designed to capture quality of life enhancements for residents and staff.
Karen C. Schoeneman, MPA is a senior policy analyst and project officer with the CMS Division of Nursing Homes, which has the responsibility for survey and certification of nursing homes. At CMS, Karen has worked with the nursing home survey process for the past 16 years, specializing in quality of life. She has trained over 5000
of the surveyors in quality of life, in their Basic training class. Karen is a nationally recognized expert in culture change, and is the CMS lead for this topic in the Survey and Certification Group. She was one of the small group of innovators who began meeting in 1997 to form the culture change network, and its gathering place, the Pioneer Network, and she remains active in the movement, speaking on how the long term care federal regulations support culture change. She has executive-produced several CMS live satellite broadcasts including 2 shows on the activities requirements, the Pioneer Network, a 2-part show on person-centered dementia care and others. She led the development of the new (2006) revision of the activities interpretive guidelines, and co-led the development of a new CMS Psychosocial Outcome Severity Guide, as well as a 2006 satellite broadcast on this topic. She is a member of the Board of the Institute for Caregiver Education, a culture-change training organization based in Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to CMS, she served as a social worker in long term care facilities in Pennsylvania for 17 years. She is a Penn State grad, with a master’s degree in public administration.
Contact information:
carmen@edu-catering.com 303-981-7228
Contact information:
karen.schoeneman@cms.hhs.gov 410-786-6855
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