Prepare to deal with the cost of safety code violations

August 22, 2017

From the August 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Find a company or individual who is a code expert and develop a relationship with him. Have him visit your facility and perform an in-depth above and below the ceiling life safety survey. If your organization is truly committed to making your facility safe for patients, visitors and staff, you are going to have to spend money to be compliant.

Obtain education for staff. This begins with giving them copies of the accreditation standards that they must know and comply with. Make the code books available to them. When the consultant is performing a life safety survey of your buildings have him take time to go over his findings, any new codes, etc., and provide some education to staff.

During an official validation survey or accreditation survey, have key staff along and get them involved with the survey. It is an excellent time for them to see what is involved with a survey. Most surveyors don’t mind the extra bodies, and it gives them an opportunity to see what surveyors look for and why. Staff should know how their attention to detail while performing PMs, making general repairs or making rounds can have a negative or positive impact on the outcome of a survey.

Training and education based on your needs

Stay up to date with the latest training to fix, troubleshoot, and maintain your critical care devices. GE HealthCare offers multiple training formats to empower teams and expand knowledge, saving you time and money

It is very common for members of senior leadership to take these surveys personal. Right away, they feel that the surveyor is out to get them in order to look good to their supervisor or to CMS. If you step back and take a real hard look at the surveyor’s job and the materials they are working from, enforcement is basically already written and explained. The bottom line is you either meet the code/standard requirements or you don’t. They don’t make these things up. They are just following a script that is already written for them – “the code.” I have known CEOs who make such a fuss over any type of finding that will cost money that the surveyor will dig a little deeper, find more deficiencies, which, in turn, costs more money. Is this fair? No. Does it happen on occasion? Yes.

This article is not written to support all state and accreditation agency surveyors, or to justify how they, as individuals, conduct business when out in the field. Not all surveyors are created equal and not all act appropriately. The point of the article is to provide you with some guidance on how to deal with the various personalities of the surveyors, how to handle developing action plans for correcting deficiencies and how to make sure you keep your facility code compliant as best as possible, and not just a few months before your survey is due. Remember, a validation survey can be conducted without notice, just as the accreditation surveys are unannounced.



You Must Be Logged In To Post A Comment Sign In If you've already created an account, use your email address and password to sign in using the form below. Login Problems: Click here if you are having login issues. Email address: Password: Forgot your password? Login Problems? View our Legal Notice and Privacy Notice Register Registration is Free and Easy. Enjoy the benefits of The World's Leading New & Used Medical Equipment Marketplace. Register Now!