Survey begins

Specialties Geriatric

Published

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:

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
why the escort?

first of all, any surveyor is a visitor in the facility and should be treated with respect, courtesy and given the recognition of the position they hold. turn your back on them, snub them and they might not like your facility so well, you think? second, you don't want wayward employees blabbing the wrong things, either in nervousness or out of spite, to a surveyor. if someone from administration is with the surveyor that can be stopped before a tragedy occurs. third, what if you get a dishonest surveyor? they could start making up all kinds of things they say they saw, particularly if they are put out because no one is accompanying them around the facility to help them navigate the place. if no representative of the facility was there to accompany them while they were making these supposed observations, how can you possibly dispute any false claims and win any disagreement?

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

2 years in a row we have had surveyors show up on a Sunday. Last year was the Father's day sunday around 3pm. Of course I've got a BBQ going on w/ dad and FIL, plus lots of others. As MDS, and part of nsg management, it is expected that I drop everything and run.. so left Mom and MIL in charge of cooking and left! This year they showed up around 5pm on a Sunday night. As a general rule, all department heads/nsg management is to be in the building at all times while state is there. (We ALL -dietary, hskp, business off, etc- stayed til 8pm one night). We escort for initial tour only, than watch from a distance. We have the same team every year and tend to communicate pretty good - they have no qualms about sharing their concerns with us immediately :(! And in our state, there is NO warning they are coming. We know they can come in anywhere from 9months to 15 months and that is as close of a guess as we get.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
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.

I know this is an old post, but, really....what state do y'all live in? "Facilities are warned'???Not in this state....ever. The window opens 12 months after the last survey and they come when they come...no warning...no advanced notice.

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So, what if they do come at nite?? I've never been thru a survey - do I lock them in a room somewhere until the admin get there??:chair:

Can they just walk into a place and start going around? How do you know they're who they say they are? Will you get dinged for asking?

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Whoever the most senior staff member at the time should greet the surveyors. They are required to announce their presence to someone when they walk in your building. You will not get dinged and are certainly within your rights to ask ANYONE who is in your building who they are and ask them for some form of identification if need be.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
So, what if they do come at nite?? I've never been thru a survey - do I lock them in a room somewhere until the admin get there??:chair:

Can they just walk into a place and start going around? How do you know they're who they say they are? Will you get dinged for asking?

Ha! Ha! A lot of people would love to lock them in a room! :lol2: And, probably forget about them!

This is one of those times when you definitely have to pick up the phone and call the administrator, if you have his/her number or the DON at home. They have identification to prove who they are.

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Ha! Ha! A lot of people would love to lock them in a room! :lol2: And, probably forget about them!

This is one of those times when you definitely have to pick up the phone and call the administrator, if you have his/her number or the DON at home. They have identification to prove who they are.

Thanks to you and Capecod! What is the first thing they usually want to do, especially when they come in on an off-shift?

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God bless everyone that is going thru survey right now. We're due any day now at my facility, and everyone is on edge. Then again, there are alot of nurses at my facility that don't do things by the book, and I'm sure we'll take a few hits because of them. Shame the stress level it puts on us tho. Would be easier to just do it the right way all the time, instead of correcting mistakes right before survey, but then they'd have to hire more staff, which doesn't seem an option at my place.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

The surveyors in Massachusetts seem to be zooming in on emergency plans and supplies. They wanted to know at one facility how much emergency water the facility had...

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I know this is an old post, but, really....what state do y'all live in? "Facilities are warned'???Not in this state....ever. The window opens 12 months after the last survey and they come when they come...no warning...no advanced notice.

I live in California and the LTC I worked at did get day or so warning and I have heard that in some other states and places the facilities got enough warning to cover up.

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God bless everyone that is going thru survey right now. We're due any day now at my facility, and everyone is on edge. Then again, there are alot of nurses at my facility that don't do things by the book, and I'm sure we'll take a few hits because of them. Shame the stress level it puts on us tho. Would be easier to just do it the right way all the time, instead of correcting mistakes right before survey, but then they'd have to hire more staff, which doesn't seem an option at my place.

John - I heard at the last facility, and again at this facility, that when state comes, we'll have all kinds of staff that we don't usually have - this seems dishonest to me.

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:confused:

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.

Our facility never really knows when they will come in. They have three months before and three months after your last survey to come in. So there is a window there where we know at anytime they could come in but we do not know for sure when it will be. How do the facilities know when they will be coming in? We are in OH. Are they in a different state?

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