Surveys are resuming in areas deemed safe for on-site visits even as the coronavirus pandemic continues its waves of surge and decline. With COVID-19 still on everyone’s mind, expect to be asked for documentation of inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) of critical systems and to show...
Be prepared to explain to surveyors how you will catch up with any inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) of non-critical systems that had been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Update logs and records for any ITM done on critical systems, and make sure you can show that...
A pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus was predictable. Yet the experience itself was—and still is for many—unanticipated, says Deanna Scatena, BSN, RN, CCRN,...
In the September issue, we told you about a hospital that responded quickly to threats posed after the nation learned of the 2019 novel coronavirus, but still faced a finding of immediate jeopardy (IJ) to patients and staff from CMS officials.
Always being ready for survey can be one of the greatest challenges, but there are tools. In the following excerpt from HCPro’s recently published Survey Coordinator’s Handbook, 21st Edition, we offer you a look at using tracers to assess how well your team is doing on compliance.
The following information was taken from a CMS Form-2567 “Statement of Deficiencies” posted online by the federal agency under its Quality, Certification and Oversight Reports (QCOR) group.
In an announcement that The Joint Commission (TJC) has been approved for two years as a Medicare accrediting organization (AO), CMS outlines what it sees as the differences between TJC standards and its own requirements.
Expect The Joint Commission (TJC) to get tougher on some areas of survey, particularly with the physical environment and off-campus facilities, and to change the level of detail in its daily briefing about what surveyors are finding.
In mid-July, CMS confirmed that TJC—one of the nation’s...
The Joint Commission (TJC) issued several statements about resuming surveys that were suspended at the beginning of the COVID-19 patient surge in March. Just like other agencies during this fast-moving response to the coronavirus, much of the guidance continues to be updated.
