And while you may try and focus attention on all the new protocols and procedures, it's important that you don't forget the basic rules of a successful survey. Many of the basic and timeless rules for staff conduct during survey seem to remain a mystery for facilities nationwide. Survey savvy There is a code of conduct that all staff should observe whenever surveyors are in your facility, Fleming says. And ideally this conduct translates as well into everyday behavior in your facility, including the manner in which staff routinely treat residents and take notice of and greet visitors. To be successful in their surveys, however, facilities need to have essential systems in place for all staff to remain informed and involved in care issues, Fleming says.
Facilities give nurse aides small cards or forms that are typically the face sheet to the care plan.
The format and the words are different, and details are arbitrarily left off the nurse aide document. And during your survey, a surveyor will look at a resident's care plan based on the MDS, while observing your nurse aide deliver care to that resident. Since the nurse aide doesn't even have a working knowledge of that document, it doesn't take much to trip up him or her, Fleming points out. This is the surveyors' first impression of the facility, and the time when the survey team finalizes the development of their target group of residents for in-depth review. Nothing is a bigger red flag than a staff person who does not know the residents or what the residents' care needs entail, Fleming says.