State/Medicare visit

[okie4ever]

How can I prepare for a site visit by the state health department and/or medicare that will be very thorough? My area is the emergency department. Any one have any ideas of how I can get my unit up to par?

[stephva1008]

Ours just came. The main thing we focused on was safety issues. Is staff's food in the med fridge (creamer, etc) or in the patient's fridge? Is everything out from under the sink (shouldn't be used as storage)? We had to remove all the items that were taped to our nurses' station as it was "an infection issue." We have to use magnets to post items now. Is everything within 3 feet of the smoke detectors? Everything off the floor and the heating vents? Is your crash cart regularly inspected? Are you glucometer strips expired? Is your ice machine clean (ours had mold growing in the tray), patient rooms clean, etc. They asked us about where the fire alarm was, extinguishers and our ILSM's. Go room to room, check cleanliness, is anything blocking the crash cart? Items in the hallway should be on the same side of the hallway, etc. Check expirations of everything in your path. HTH!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

you need to know the standards before you can practice them. Look at the JC site for help on that. I bought the book since I refer to it frequently. Meanwhile, ANYTHING related to safety is a must. Knowing codes, who is responsible for what, the throughput process, competencies must be up to date. We got dinged one time because an agency nurse was in ED and she did not have current ACLS and our policy requires it of all nurses in ED. They sure do now!