Remember to keep checking for a new Survey Activity Guide (SAG) from The Joint Commission (TJC), which is promised for July and will include new information on surveys as they slowly resume in areas with a slowed rate in COVID-19 cases.
As regular survey activities slowly resume, expect The Joint Commission (TJC) and other accrediting organizations (AO) to follow CMS in focusing on infection control and taking a detailed look at how well facilities planned for and responded to the coronavirus pandemic.
Download checklists provided by CMS and the CDC to review your infectious disease preparedness plans as the COVID-19 emergency continues to ebb and flow throughout the nation.
If you are expecting a survey from your accreditation organization (AO) in the upcoming weeks and months, check in with your liaison. All four hospital AOs have suspending most or all survey activities during the national emergency to deal with COVID-19.
What deficiencies would you cite and why? And how would you correct them?
You be the surveyor.
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)...
CMS announced it is combining the interpretive guidelines that its surveyors use for psychiatric hospitals into the main Appendix A for hospitals, eliminating the need for double survey visits.
CMS is revising its State Operations Manual (SOM) for hospitals in one of the first significant overhauls in more than a year. But be aware that the changes are not fully online yet and more revisions are to come.
Healthcare compliance changed quite a bit in the last decade. For one thing, fire safety moved into the current millennium with the adoption of the 2012 versions of NFPA 101 Life Safety Code® (LSC) and NFPA 99 Health Care Facilities Code®.
On October 28, The Joint Commission will retire it's Standards BoosterPaks resources. On December 31, the Leading Practice Library will be retired too.
