As you prepare for your facility’s accreditation survey, you may wonder how to approach healthcare regulatory compliance. Oftentimes, it can be difficult to know where to begin to get ready for your healthcare facility audit. However, there are a few steps to help you manage your healthcare compliance efforts and prepare for your survey.
Observe Current Procedures and Equipment
The best place to begin to achieve healthcare regulatory compliance is to look at your current equipment, procedures, and behaviors. Because you are likely in your facility every day, you may not notice areas of non-compliance as you go about your daily tasks. Therefore, try to set aside some time to observe. This can help you discern your facility’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as find obstacles to your accreditation from the Joint Commission, CMS, or other inspection agencies. During this process, try to take in as much information as you can. Once you have those observations, you can decide where changes need to be made.
Evaluate Areas for Healthcare Regulatory Compliance
Next, you should evaluate which areas a healthcare facility audit may identify as partially or non-compliant. These can include environment of care elements like the condition of your equipment, your emergency evacuation plan, or your maintenance schedules. List any healthcare compliance issues from large to small to help streamline the process of discovery. From there, you can work toward bringing these issues into compliance.
Create an Action Plan to Achieve Compliance and Pass Your Healthcare Facility Audit
Third, you should design a plan on how you will achieve healthcare regulatory compliance. Using your observations and evaluation list, find ways to fix these violations of compliance. For example, you may schedule an upgrade for your fire systems, create a maintenance plan for your equipment, or update your evacuation plan. Once you have a strategy, you can take action to achieve accreditation.
Schedule a Mock Healthcare Compliance Inspection Before Your Survey
Finally, after you implement your plan and make improvements, schedule a mock inspection with a third party. It is important to do this, as an objective eye can often spot issues that you missed. For the best results, you should work with a company who has experience and industry knowledge of the codes and regulations related to healthcare regulatory compliance. Taking this step before your survey can help you feel more prepared and solve any problems that may have been overlooked.
If you need specialized and customized healthcare facility inspection services, Healthcare Life Safety Services can help. We check for Medicare and Medicaid compliance, state health department regulations, life safety equipment and preparation, and many other details about your operations. This can help set you up for healthcare regulatory compliance and prepare your facility for healthcare facility audits. Our teams have the expertise and advice you need. Call us today at (281) 598-1359 for more information or to schedule a consultation with our team. Healthcare Life Safety Services is here to provide practical solutions for your healthcare facility.