CMS has announced its plans to implement the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 skilled nursing facility (SNF) patient assessment instrument. The goals of the MDS 3.0 revision include introducing advances in assessment measures, increasing the clinical relevance of items, improving accuracy and validity, including more resident interview items, shortening the tool, and improving user satisfaction to encourage quality improvement implementation. CMS plans to begin implementing the MDS 3.0 on October 1, 2010, including collecting national data using MDS 3.0 and basing the SNF PPS on MDS 3.0 data. Public SNF quality reporting using MDS 3.0 data will begin in October 2011.