In-person surveys for nursing home facilities have restarted for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. In this first installment of a seven-part series, get tips on how being prepared can help your staff and center be survey ready.
Now that in-person nursing home surveys have returned, many facility employees are finding themselves unprepared, which could lead to a high number of citations and/or extending the amount of time a surveyor is in the building.
To help you make sure you are ready for coming surveys, Comagine Health is publishing a seven-part series of articles.
In each installment we will highlight specific areas to focus on for the week, suggest processes to implement and provide helpful resources. We encourage you to follow the series and review internal processes to determine if there are specific areas that need to be updated, revised or implemented.
Some resources to help prepare for surveys:
- LTCSP Resources Updated – Again (1/25/2022) | CMS Compliance Group — Blog post featuring updated Long-Term Care Survey Process Survey resources.
- QSO-22-19-NH | CMS — Memo about the revised Long-Term Care Surveyor Guidance that will become effective Oct. 24, 2022.
Getting Focused — Team and Tools
Preparing for a survey is a team effort that involves leadership and may need to include staff from various roles in some areas. Surveyors can show up at any time for any type of survey, so you should assume you are always “in the survey window.”
- Entrance Conference Worksheet | CMS — We recommend that leadership staff who have never participated in a survey review this and the LTC Survey Pathways content (refer to steps below) to see what surveyors look at during visits.
- CMS Releases Revised Nursing Home Surveyor Guidance | American Health Care Association — June 2022 blog post that includes a summary of the areas that have updates and links to more information.
- LTC Survey Pathways | CMS
- 1. Scroll down to "Downloads" and select Survey Resources with Staff Vaccine Documents 05/09/2022 to download the ZIP file.
- 2. Open the downloaded ZIP file and then open the LTC Survey Pathways folder (within the ZIP file) to access PDF and Word versions of the documents.
Once you have determined areas to focus on and the resources needed to prepare for the survey, the next step is to get organized. We will cover tips on organization in the next installment.
Other Survey Readiness Topics
Staffing, Competencies, Vaccine Tracking & Documentation
Quality of Care and Data Review