Nursing Facilities
Expansion of Survey Activities
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued QSO 20-35-ALL memo on August 17, 2020, notifying State Survey Agency (SA) Directors to expand survey activities to include onsite revisits, complaint surveys, annual surveys, and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) surveys.
Many nursing facility leaders are concerned because of the tremendous drain COVID-19 has placed on resources, making it almost impossible to stay on top of all of the daily regulatory requirements. With little time to focus on systems and processes outside of infection control and prevention, COVID-19 testing, ensuring you have supplies, and resident/staff emotional support, you may be vulnerable in other areas.
The ACT Post-Acute Care Consultants Can Help! How?
- Remote record review to identify vulnerabilities within the health records,
- System or process evaluations to identify steps you should take immediately to mitigate the possibility of deficiencies that are high in Scope/Severity (i.e., G, IJ),
- Regulatory compliance priority analysis to identify the regulatory areas your facility needs to focus on first to prepare for your annual survey,
- Staff education and competencies, and
- Remote system review with department leaders to identify priority focus needs, while providing education on regulatory requirements and interpretation.
