Nursing

Speak up: Ask JCAHO surveyors questions to get results

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, September 8, 2006

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By Patricia Dolan's count, her facility avoided at least three requirements for improvement (RFI) during its unannounced survey simply because she decided to speak up and take surveyors to task on some of their findings.

"It's my hospital," says Dolan, RN, BSN, MSN, chief nursing officer at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Russellville, AR. "I know how it runs, the processes that are in place, and I know the [JCAHO] standards."

So when surveyors took issue with areas that Dolan was sure that Saint Mary's was in compliance with, she didn't keep quiet and worked to clarify the issues on the spot. Dolan has tips for colleagues who may also be faced with surveyor findings with which they disagree:

  1. Take care of the issue during your survey. Don't wait until you get the survey report later. The best way to do this is to make sure that you're constantly monitoring surveyor activity. Or have a trusted staff member who knows the standards escort the surveyor.
  2. Be pleasant, and don't argue. Be an advocate, but don't be overzealous.
  3. Know your stuff. "You have to know the standards," Dolan says. Read them for what they are; don't read anything into them.

To learn more, go to Briefings on JCAHO (BOJ). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire September issue of BOJ. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of BOJ have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their September issue.



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