Long term care surveys

[KlareRN]

I work with several long term care facilities in northern Indiana as a consultant and am just wondering how other states are coping with their state surveys. Indiana has gotten to the point that very few facilities are able to clear a survey. Level G deficiencies are common. I know some buildings deserve them- but some of the facilities that are getting level G F-tags really do provide excellent care. The corporation I work for fortunately has excellent programs for restraints, psycotropics, falls, etc. but still cannot please the surveyors. They seem to be so out of touch with reality. Do the other states have surveyors that insist on finding something to cite? One facility got a level G tag for one resident that was unable to walk safely without assistance. He had a bed alarm, motion detector, and low bed in his room to try to keep him safe at noc. He tried to get up and when the alarms went off- staff ran to his room but was too late. He fell and broke his hip. Siderails were not an option- he tried to crawl through and over them. Our corporation does not allow vest restraints or roll-belts or any kind of "restraint" in bed because of the dangers. I agree with our no restraint in bed policy. But-what else could we have done? The surveyor said the facility should have done something for him- but was unable to give us any other recommendations. Any ideas or comments about long term care surveys?

"Those that can...do...And those that can't...survey!!!":rolleyes:

[Fran-RN]

OOPs I messed up. G is for actual harm and F is for potential harm. So in this case if the gentleman didn't actually fall but , had a history that showed a potential for fall and the facility had done nothing to prevent a fall that could be cited as a F.

[Brownms46]

Thank Fran-RN...I appreciate the information.

[CoachCathy]

Tex - we have had state twice here in NC in one month :-p The focus seemed to be on oral care (like the one from Kansas said) and feet (!?!?). They also looked at our pneumovax and fluvax records, which is something they haven't done before. good luck . Just for the record, the craziest tag I have seen was given to the facility I was at a couple of years ago. Twenty-something year old CP patient - kept groping the staff members - had to redirect, etc., got social work involved, etc., tried to increase out of room activities, etc. We got hit with a G for "failing to meet the psychosexual needs of a resident" !!! My thought was that Medicare doesn't reimburse for lap dances! :-) We did take that to IDR and won......

[Fran-RN]

Did they have any suggestions on what you were supposed to do??? crazy is right.