There's somethin' going on...

Love-A-Nurse · Jul 23, 2002

originally posted by rnpd
isn't it funny that during inspections there is always plenty of staff....

yes, yes, yes!

shannonRN, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2002

Originally posted by Teshiee
When JACHO arrives it is amazing how hospitals run the way they should run. I wish they would come un announced on a regular basis and we probaly wouldn't have as many issues that hospitals dish out to their employees.

i agree!!!

indeed · Jul 23, 2002

JCAHO doesn't give a flying frog about staffing. When they were here last month, our staffing didn't change one bit and we still passed with flying colors. Which just goes to show you that you can safely add JCAHO to the list of the billions of forces that could not care LESS about actual, real-life NURSING...but have more influence on our day to day practice than we do.

Indeed.

night owl · Jul 24, 2002

Well ve, venni, vechi...(sp?)

I Heard they finally left at 6pm. We were weak in a few areas areas... Do I dare tell? :imbar One was in restraints..we need to keep better "logs", another was in pain management ...too many prn effectivenesses missing ...sometimes you get so busy that you forget to go back and record it . ( yeah, yeah,excuses, excuses!) and the other was ummm....oh yeah, the missing pt policies and proceedures...Thank God no one was missing at the time! But hey, now we'll be prepared for when they make the big visit! HN asked if they came on nights...No praise the Lord! She said well, you know they do sometimes...I'm thinking well this wasn't one of them HAHAHAHAHAHA! :chuckle :chuckle

rnor · Jul 24, 2002

We just had a visit from THE BIG J...ha..ha. As everyone else said the staffing was great for about 3 days and then Puff the Magic Dragon took them away...and yes our drug rooms were locked up like Ft. Knox. The real kicker was our manager thought everthing in the staff refrig. that had been opened such as mustard, mayo, etc..should be thrown out???Never have figured that one out...but you guys are right..maybe they should pop in whenever. I have never seen so many completed charts, I mean they had H&P's, labs the whole 9 yards coming to surgery, and usually we go in the OR with or without whatever on the chart...depends on the day, and what mood our anesthesia people are in as to whether they demand it be present....

MQ Edna · Jul 24, 2002

I'm still new to this "labcoat" role so maybe I'll lose my glistening idealism later, but I've got the weird, funky idea that if we fix things that are wrong, we'll do just fine with JCAHO! I'm not a JCAHO cheerleader, but unfortunately a lot of the things they lean on come out of things that weren't right. Back when ole Flo Nightingale & I were working LTC (they called it a "nursing home" back then), we restrained everybody! :eek: Got a wandering "Organic brain syndome" pt? Tie 'em down; they might fall! Now we're dealing with the backlash of that :imbar . Pain? Patients were undermedicated for eons, (and often still are!). Now we're assessing pain from post-op to pinkie! :rolleyes: What I'm trying to do is focus on things that aren't necessarily what JCAHO is looking at this week, but that staff members tell me need to be fixed to give good care. I'm probably wrong and my patootie will be out in the street when we get inspected later this year. :o :chair:

mattsmom81 · Jul 25, 2002

I always felt that JCAHO was really just a 'dog and pony show', as they are OWNED by the American Hospital Association. If I am wrong here someone please correct me.

My experience is the hospitals use JCAHO to make workers jump through hoops to benefit the hospital's image in the community.

Amazing how the staffing is always SO GOOD when the hospital's little PR machine comes wandering through the halls. Hehe.

I'd guess they're trying to 'shake up' the staff when surprise visits happen...but I've never had one....we always have plenty of notice, so the managers can put us through our silly paces.

Gomer · Jul 25, 2002

JCAHO is an independent, not-for-profit organization. It is not owned by the AHA (however, AHA is a corporate member, as are the American College of Surgeons, American Dental Association, and the AMA....just to name a few). JCAHO is governed by a board of commissioners that includes nurses, physicians, consumers, medical directors, administrators, providers, employers, labor representatives, health plan leaders, quality experts, ethicists, health insurance administrators, educators, etc., etc.

That being said, it is really a PAIN-IN-THE-A** for most healthcare workers/managers/administrators. But if you want the Medicare/Medicaid/HMO/PPO/insurance $$$$$$'s to keep your hospital/nursing home/etc. open; you have to be surveyed by some "official" body (either JCAHO or the State).

I would rather have a JCAHO survey than the state of California (Title 22 -- Dept. of Health Services) come knocking on my door.

mattsmom81 · Jul 25, 2002

Ah, thank you Gomer for passing that info on...apparently I was misinformed. I'm glad to know others are involved in the process....just have never seen a hospital get in any real trouble from JCAHO, so it was easy for me to believe the story of AHA ownership/influence.

Guess this is a good lesson that I shouldn't believe everything I hear!

indeed · Jul 25, 2002

From the way I understand it, JCAHO doesn't have any actual power to do something drastic to a hospital. They just take their findings to another governing body (usually the state). If I am not mistaken, this just happened in New Jersey, got a hospital closed. And I want to know where y'all work...three or four days of great staffing? Where can I sign up?!

Indeed.

RN4ustat, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2002

Originally posted by Gomer
JCAHO is an independent, not-for-profit organization.

If they are non-profit, then why do the hospitals PAY them to come in a survey?? The small rural hospital I used to work at suddenly quit being surveyed by JCAHO because it was not effective. We were surveyed by medicare, HCFA and our insurance company instead and they were much similar but much more stringent than JCAHO. Medicare is the real biggie everyone needs to be wary of. Hospitals can survive without being JCAHO accredited but the can't survive without medicare. If you aren't medicare certified, you don't get reimbursed by medicare.

Reabock · Jul 26, 2002

Well, we are in our 2nd day of our JACHO survey, starting to get a little lax this evening and, guess what, THEY showed back up on the floor about 1830-1930 hrs. for a little unscheduled tour. Trying to find somewhere to go and look busy but not obvious, I got nabbed and ended up showing the male (an MD) where he could get coffee, chatted a bit since I don't drink coffee and he thought that odd, while he checked out the fridge while getting milk for said coffee, then ended up answering several questions re: evening med aquisition, how Docs respond to being called, how we get old charts, noted our new crash carts. Led him to a back room to review some charts while drinking his coffee , all the while trying to block sight of my huge coke cup and grapes sitting under the counter, a major NoNo to have beverage and food at nurses station :imbar at least while they are around. Did manage to get said food products and cup and chg nurses cup also out of sight before he came out of back room! WHEWWW!

I have been there 25 + years and this is the first time I have been put in this position, being nabbed by reviewers. Actually seemed very easy to talk to and he told the supervisor later he liked our floor and the way we took care of pts and how we were friendly :D

I'm off tomorrow for the last day, hope we do well overall.