Survey begins

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

argh! Last Saturday morning at 8:30.........These people well know that most of us are better staffed during the week-I guess they decided to shake things up a bit this year.Saturday I worked with an agency LPN-she had not been on the unit for months but she was great...I'm a float and I had not been up there in a week but we worked together and things worked out very well....A few staff nurses had signed up for OT for Sunday but did not show and the supervisor had cancelled the agency...It was awful-we had 2 less cna's and I worked with a pool RN who is less then ambitious-she chatted and smoked while I ran around like a nutcase-with the surveyor up my butt all day....I came home exhausted and with a screaming headache.I took 2 tylenol PM and went to bed-did not wake up until this morning.......I will never ever work like that again.....It was entirely my own fault but I did not want to get into any kind of confrontation while the surveyor was lurking about......I volunteered myself to become a victim-I hate myself!!!!!:trout:

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We have Survey coming up soon....igh! Public Health is due in any day for some stuff, and my boss and I are trying to get things fixed up. Guess the previous QA nurse did NOTHING, and I gotta get her mess straightened out. :trout:

Hope you guys did well.

Suebird :)

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I hope the survey results are good.

In my state one of the rules is that 1 in every 4 surveys has to be initiated outside of regular business hours (9-5, M-F).

I felt cursed during the 6 years I worked in SNFs. Survey always showed up on my shift and not one time was it during business hours. Theres nothing quite like calling your administrator & DoN at 2 am on a Wednesday morning to tell them we had "company".

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

You didn't mention it, but I hope the DON was there. Every place I've ever worked we were to call the administrator the minute any surveyor showed up and they were never to be allowed to wander throughout a facility without escort. I would think that the DON would have called in the MDS nurse and anybody else she could get on the phone to get into the facility to help out.

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Specializes in psychiatric ER, Mental Health.

There was a pager list, all departments were called in when the "company" came to visit.

Good luck through this!!

~ear

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

We had the exit interview today and I'll find out the details tomorrow....As for calling every one in when the company showed up-they were in on Sunday but not Saturday.The administrator came in for about 45mins Sat. am with the DON -they posted the signage regarding the survey throughout the facility and left.The surveyors have never been escorted in out facility-you never know when they will creep around a corner.The woman on my unit was way more thorough then some of the others.It's funny how the process seems to be so objective.There should be a better method... I'm just glad it's over....:balloons:

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Zowie--at every facility I've ever worked in , the DNS and administrator were there for the entire survey--except one time my DNS was in the hospital the day they exited. We only escort them once to do the tour of the units. After that they are on their own...being watched of course at a distance. I guess I'm lucky...all my surveys have started on a Monday thru Friday at around 8am....and if you ask me, the process is way too SUBjective instead of the objective way it should be...and too darn confrontational with the surveyors looking to find things wrong instead of working with us to show us the right way.

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You didn't mention it, but I hope the DON was there. Every place I've ever worked we were to call the administrator the minute any surveyor showed up and they were never to be allowed to wander throughout a facility without escort. I would think that the DON would have called in the MDS nurse and anybody else she could get on the phone to get into the facility to help out.

Why the escort? Facilities most of the time are warned they are coming and clean up the problems long enough to get a better rating but not really solve anything. Personally, I'd like to see them show up with no warning once in a while, maybe even work a facility undercover, and really clean up these bad facilities.

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Why the escort? Facilities most of the time are warned they are coming and clean up the problems long enough to get a better rating but not really solve anything. Personally, I'd like to see them show up with no warning once in a while, maybe even work a facility undercover, and really clean up these bad facilities.
Right on sister, or brother!Plus, why are we "helping" cover up what is wrong when surveyors are there? Are we any more appreciated for it? Does trying to be complicit in "hiding" things from state warrant the nice little pizza party afterwards? Or does everything just go back to the way it was again , until next year survey time?:trout:
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Right on sister, or brother!Plus, why are we "helping" cover up what is wrong when surveyors are there? Are we any more appreciated for it? Does trying to be complicit in "hiding" things from state warrant the nice little pizza party afterwards? Or does everything just go back to the way it was again , until next year survey time?:trout:

I don't think we should cover up, especially if it harms the residents. I'm going to start a thread about what should be done before people quit these bad facilities, because it seems like a few have quit and didn't say anything about reporting to the state the things that are wrong.

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I don't think we should cover up, especially if it harms the residents. I'm going to start a thread about what should be done before people quit these bad facilities, because it seems like a few have quit and didn't say anything about reporting to the state the things that are wrong.
Thats a GREAT idea!!Id like to see how many did report to the state and what happened to them afterwards.I was fired for reporting to the state and now am in a law suit with former employer, thank goodness for our state law that protects healthcare worker whistleblowers.
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Thats a GREAT idea!!Id like to see how many did report to the state and what happened to them afterwards.I was fired for reporting to the state and now am in a law suit with former employer, thank goodness for our state law that protects healthcare worker whistleblowers.

I know California has a whistleblower law, but I don't know about other states. I've heard of posts and threads complaining about lazy CNAs running the places and no backup from the higher-ups, and I think if the CNAs are lazy, then things aren't getting done for the residents. And it needs to be thoroughly documented and reported.

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