Tags??What are they?

APBT mom, LPN, RN · Feb 24, 2008

The only way I can explain this is you know when you drive down the interstate and you see a car that has a red tag hanging from the antennae, it's there to let the tow truck co that has that stretch of highway know that they can now tow the car. In my state you hav 24 hrs to move your vehicle from the side of the road before it becomes tagged.

It's the same principle JACHO or OSHA come in and do an inspection everything that's wrong gets "tagged" (written up like a speeding ticket) and the facility has a certain amount of time to fix if not they will have to pay the fine for the problem. I believe if they get a certain amount or if the ones that they get are very serious they have the right to shut the facility down until it's fixed.

ltcconsultant · Feb 24, 2008

CMS (the federal agency that runs Medicare and oversees all nursing home surveys in the country) have a book called the "State Operations Manual" that contain the minimum standards for each type of Medicare participating facility (hospital, home health, hospice, nursing home, dialysis center, etc.) and the protocols for doing the annual surveys. For each different set of minimum standards, each standard has a "tag" affiliated with it that serve as a kind of code. Nursing home minimum standards have F tags (ex. F309), whereas home health minimum standards have G tags (ex. G114). If a survey agency cites a facility for failing to comply with a minimum standard, they will list the F tag being violated. When someone in a nursing home talks about F tags, they are probably referring to the deficiencies they received on their last survey, which are issued by the state under the authority and guidelines of the federal government. The best source for learning about F tags is to review appendix PP (guidance to surveyors) of the CMS state operations manual. You can get it on the CMS web site or email me and I'll send you a copy.