DOH survey frequency

[rubysasha, BSN]

i have been working for a hospice agency for the last two years, and our last visit from the DOH was in august 2011. ever since august 2014, many of my supervisors have been warning us that we are due 'any day' for a survey. they still have not shown up (not that i'm complaining)

i looked on the state DOH website for frequency of inspections, it says: "CHHAs and Long Term Home Health Care Programs are inspected at a maximum interval of 36 months; Hospices at a maximum interval of 48 months, and Licensed or limited licensed home care services agencies at 36 month intervals"

i don't want to be rude and question my supervisor for something so insignificant. do you think it's possible that they are confusing home care with hospice regulations? if it is really 48 months, that is 4 years, so we wouldn't be due until august of 2015, correct? or am i reading something wrong or confusing something? when should we really be expecting them?

i'm just trying to figure it out because i have not had to do any DOH visits and i'm more nervous about doing it in the homecare setting than when i worked in the hospital.

[softrbreeze]

It says a "maximum interval of 48 mos". Some hospices are surveyed much more frequently so if your supervisor says you have one due anytime, I'd take it as gospel. My current hospice company gets surveyed about every 2 yrs but I've worked for another hospice briefly that was always in hot water about something and they were surveyed EVERY year because of pt/cg complaints.

[curiousauntie]

I worked at my last hospice job for 7 1/2 years. During that time we were surveyed...not once! Honestly, we did not have one Medicare audit or one visit from the state DOH! We did have CHAP audits, 3 or 4 times, but coming from LTC, they were a cake walk from what I was used to. We also had a Medicare compliance consultant who visited at least monthly to do chart audits and supervisory visits with the nurses.