Long Term Care Conference Tips: Stay on the Top of the Latest Survey Changes

CMS had put a new home health agency survey protocol in place which contained in Survey & Certification letter S&C: 11-11- HHA and modified Appendix B of Medicare’s State Operations Manual.

Although the new survey protocol has been in force for quite some time, a lot of HHAs
haven’t

studied up on it. That could lead to huge survey trouble when surveyors next visit you.

Here are the top survey changes outlined by an expert in a recent long term care conferences:

1) Better surveyor guidance. CMS is offering more guidance to surveyors in spheres for instance when is the time to expand a survey, when is the time to issue a deficiency, and also when to mention a standard-level versus condition-level deficiency.

2) Focus on quality. The novel survey protocol leads surveyors to focus on specific standards most directly related to the delivery of high-quality patient care. CMS is trying to concentrate more on patient care and lesson paper-based compliance.

3) Interviews. Expect to see a whole lot more interviews in your next survey, as the new protocol lays emphasis on questioning staff and patients. You can anticipate surveyors to question each and every one from top management down to the individual who answers your phone.

Ensure home health compliance with expert home health conference and training sessions

4) Lesser threshold for citations. Some bad news in the new survey protocol is that just one difficult finding for a Level 1 standard results in a “standard-level deficiency citation and a partial extended survey.

5) Lesser record reviews and home visits. The new survey protocol includes some good news for HHAs. Surveyors now need lesser record reviews and home visits. Surveyors find the new numbers adequate to discover problems at agencies.

Improve the overall efficiency of your agency with a wide range of long term care conference and home health conference available at AudioEducator.