JCAHO time

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

Okay, I know there have been JCAHO discussions before and I know there used to be a JCAHO forum. I never paid much attention to them before because it wasn't JCAHO season at my hospital. Well, it is now. They will be here for 3 days and I work one of them.

So I know where the fire extinguishers and emergency exits are, what to do for a blood spill, what our different codes are, and how we assess pain, etc etc etc. But management gave us a list of potential questions and answers.

So how am I going to remember the paragraph-long answers to the different hard, complex questions???? "What model do you use for performance improvement projects and please describe the phases." The Juran model... but don't ask me to describe it. I threw all knowledge of the MODELS over my shoulder once the test on it was over back in nursing school.

Are they really going to ask this type of questions? What do they tend to ask about in the NICU? Pain? Infant abductions? Privacy?

[prmenrs, RN]

Keep the crib sheet w/you at all times. They wouldn't even let me work that week at all!!!

We had "practice sessions"! One of the nms came in, sat in the nursery and fired questions at us.

Also, once the victim is picked--circle the wagons around her. One person could not possibly remember all that BS--so if there's several of you standing there, you can help her answer the questions. That's legit, I'm pretty sure.

If you have a volunteer program, make sure that there are "competencies", including age-related, for them also. No I'm NOT joking. :angryfire

I HATE JACHO!!! I HATE JACHO!!!

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I own a small consulting company for home health and hospice and do mock surveys for those entities and I ask those questions. Surveyors look for someone who is aware of things like studies and such but if you don't know the exact steps they probably won't ding the hospital. Now if you did not know what in particular they were studying on your floor that would reflect. They ask disaster questions. Like what do you do if???? What is your disaster plan for evacuation. I anticipate they will ask people questions about terrorist action plans and such.

Does any of that help? STick a cheat sheet on your clipboard.......that is what I did during that period of heightened stress.........

renerian

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

They visit us in a year. Sounds like a good time to use all my vaca! I wouldn't know what to tell them either!!

[baseline]

We just finished a JCAHO survey. Yes, they ask questions, but our surveyors sat all of us down in a room and asked "what do you bring to this team?". BIG on team....and the interaction of team members. How does the case manager interact with dietary and social workers and PT etal. Yes, you need to know the ABC's, but know what YOUR place is in the TEAM. If your patient is selected, how do you interact with team members to improve outcomes. Did you call the diabetes case manager or dietary or social worker when needed? And if you don't have the answer...thats ok....but you BETTER know where to find it!!!

Good luck!

[catlover314]

Baseline; am hearing rumors of increased emphasis on plan of care, tracking pt thru the hospital stay (the NICU pt may create re-interviews of radiology, surgery, etc if the pts stay took him/her there). Was that your experience? Thanks for any info...

[live4today, RN]

JCAHO is always a good time of year to practice up on lying skills since that is what is expected of staff during their visits. We all know that no hospital would pass JCAHO inspections if staff were permitted to tell the stone cold truth about what goes on behind those hospital doors. :stone Ohhhhhhh if walls could talk!

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

I worked on time when they came and there was a whispered overhead page.

"clean up your pt areas.... now"

:roll