CMS has revised and updated its State Operations Manual (SOM), Appendix M, on interpretive guidelines for hospice Conditions of Participation (CoP) as well as surveyor training for hospice inspectors.
For ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), personnel records, governing body oversight of contractors, generator testing, and emergency preparedness were among the top problems along with medical records and medical staff credentialing...
Be prepared for COVID-19 cases to increase in number and potentially severity if the general public becomes too lax in vaccination, testing, and using precautions once the public health emergency (PHE) officially ends on May 11.
After providing additional training to its surveyors to increase oversight of a hospital’s plan of correction, The Joint Commission (TJC) has been approved by CMS to accredit psychiatric hospitals for participation in Medicare for another six years.
Do you need to update your hospital’s sign detailing its responsibilities under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA)? What do you do when law enforcement asks for medical records?
Beware of repeat deficiencies. CMS is pressing accrediting organizations (AO) to deal more harshly with hospitals that have repeat citations, including elevating a recurring finding to a condition-level deficiency after a time.
Here are some samples of physical environment and life safety deficiency findings found at acute care hospitals surveyed by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2022.
In its final rule, CMS included behavioral health and low-risk maternal labor and delivery on the list of services allowed under the rural emergency hospital (REH) designation. However, some hospitals have questions about how those services will work with the requirement to have patients in...
