Aina Malkonian, MHA, RCFE
Lead - Long Term Care
Aina Malkonian leads outreach and partnership with Long Term Care Facilities at Relic Care. She works alongside skilled nursing and residential care administrators, helping them adopt new technology like AI documentation, language-access, and compliance tools without giving up the consent, accountability, and audit trail that surveyors and licensing bodies expect. With close to five years in long-term care, Aina has focused on standing up new facilities and tightening processes around regulatory compliance. Above all, she's driven by making sure residents receive the care in their care plan with empathy and dignity. Outside of work, Aina lives in Glendale, California, with her dog Sheri.
Posts by Aina Malkonian, MHA, RCFE
Fall-Risk and Pressure-Injury Documentation: What F686 and F689 Actually Pull From Your Chart
What CMS's F686 and F689 Critical Element Pathways pull from your chart for falls and pressure injuries, plus OIG's 43% fall-underreporting finding.
Section GG Documentation Accuracy: Why a Missing or Dependent Response Scores as Zero
Why CMS scores a missing or Dependent Section GG item as zero, the PDPM revenue stakes, and the OIG audit exposure behind it.
The SNF Survey-Readiness Checklist: What Surveyors Actually Check, Chapter by Chapter
CMS's Critical Element Pathways, the most-cited F-tags, Risk-Based Survey eligibility, and California citation costs — a chapter-by-chapter checklist.
What a CMS Survey Actually Checks in Your Documentation — and What AI Can and Can’t Help With
What CMS surveyors check in SNF resident records — F842, the F609 reporting clock, med-pass error rates — and what AI can and can’t help with.
CMS's October 2026 MDS/RAI Manual Update: What SNFs Need to Fix Now
What changed in the October 2026 RAI Manual update — the respiratory-therapy minute rules, the PHQ-9 relabel, and the real all-payer MDS timeline.
Does SB 525's July 2026 Wage Hike Actually Apply to Your SNF?
SB 525 raises California health care wages to $23/hour on July 1, 2026 — but only for hospital-affiliated SNFs. Independent facilities are not covered yet.
CMS Now Treats Unsafe Discharge as an Immediate Jeopardy Issue
CMS now treats an unsafe discharge as an Immediate Jeopardy issue, triggering a 3-day survey response instead of 45. Here's what QSO-26-03-NH changed.
The Federal Nurse Staffing Mandate Is Dead — Why California SNFs Barely Notice
CMS repealed the federal nursing home staffing mandate in 2026. Here's why California SNFs are barely affected — and where the real compliance risk lives.
AI Translation vs. Certified Interpreter: What Section 1557 Actually Requires
Can AI translation satisfy Section 1557 language-access rules for SNF residents? Here's exactly when HHS requires a certified human interpreter instead.
Survey Readiness for Skilled Nursing Facilities: A Practical Guide to Documentation and Regulatory Risk
A practical SNF survey-readiness guide: what surveyors check, documentation that holds up, federal/CA obligations, language access, and where AI fits in.
Interpreter Services in Nursing Homes: What Federal Law (and Your Next Survey) Requires
What Section 1557, Title VI, and CMS's F-tags actually require for nursing home interpreter services — and what the 2025 EO did and didn't change.
AI Charting and Nursing Note Software: What Actually Works for SNFs
Evaluating AI documentation software for a skilled nursing facility? Start with the 48-hour and 7-day care-plan deadlines and the F842 audit trail.