Nursing

Ace the survey process

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, February 17, 2006

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!

The following tips will help your facility prepare for survey by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations:

1. Get ready for contact with surveyors. Practice with your peers on how you will respond to surveyor questions.

2. Know your facility's policies and procedures. Surveyors may review these before observing whether staff follow them.

3. Take extra care with documentation. Surveyors will compare patient charts to the care that was actually given.

4. Keep an eye out at all times for ways to improve processes and patient care. Remember, surveyors will be using data from your hospital to help guide surveys.

5. Make sure you offer surveyors consistent information on patient care.

6. Show off when you can. If a surveyor asks a question that offers the opportunity to reveal how your performance improvement project decreased falls by 10%, then talk about it.

7. Continuously prepare for survey. It's easier to get your thoughts together when you're not under pressure.

8. Relax. You know your processes better than the surveyor.

Editor's note: The above excerpt is from the online course, "Survey Series: How to Survive a JCAHO Survey for Nursing and Clinical Staff." For more information on this and other courses in our library, go to www.hcprofessor.com.



Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!

Most Popular

Related Articles