CMS Emergency Prep rule is now enforceable by surveyors
Accreditation Insider, November 14, 2017
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Accreditation Insider!
It’s finally here.
CMS’ new Emergency Preparedness rule goes into effect on Wednesday, November 15, which means surveyors can now cite facilities who aren’t compliant with the rule’s requirements.
The rule closes gaps in CMS’ previous regulations, such as requiring facilities to have contingency planning in place, emergency response training for staff, and communicate and coordinate their emergency plans with other hospitals and government agencies at the tribal, local, regional, state, and federal levels. Facilities have had over two years to prepare for this rule, and the agency has already said it won’t be accepting excuses for noncompliance.
While the rule itself is new, Steve MacArthur, a safety consultant at The Greeley Company in Danvers, Massachusetts, says that a lot of the new requirements are things that hospitals should have already been doing.
“I suppose I should stop and say that while this rule is new to the ‘marketplace,’ there are really no new concepts contained therein,” he says. “This may provide some guidance for CMS surveyors as they drill down on organizational preparedness activities. But none of this is groundbreaking or in any way representative of a change in how hospitals have done, and will continue to do, business. [It’s] just another set of official ‘eyes’ looking through the compliance microscope.”
Resources
BOAQ
- Time's almost up: CMS emergency prep CoPs kick in soon
- The CMS emergency preparedness rule: What you should already be doing
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Accreditation Insider!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Complications from immobility by body system
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- The consequences of an incomplete medical record
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- Nursing responsibilities for managing pain
- ICD-10-CM coma, stroke codes require more specific documentation
- E-mailed
-
- Correctly bill ancillary bedside procedures in addition to the room rate
- Q&A: Utilization Review Committee Membership
- Q&A: Bill blood administration the same way for inpatient and outpatient accounts
- Q&A: A second look at encephalopathy as integral to seizures/CVA
- Performing a SWOT analysis
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Know the medical gas cylinder storage requirements
- Intravenous therapy guidelines
- Coding, billing, and documentation tips for teaching physicians, interns, residents, and students
- Coding tip: Watch for different codes for SI joint injections
- Searched