The CMS Surveys May Take You by Surprise
You, and other facilities, may be under the impression that the CMS Survey is only a health inspection. Untrue. You will also find yourself fielding a visit from a surveyor looking to ensure the Life Safety Code of your facility is up to standard.
What is the Life Safety Code Survey and Why is it Important?
Just like all other building and businesses, your facility must ensure it stays up to fire code. People come in and out of your facility on a daily basis. CMS needs to ensure that they are not in harm’s way. If your surveyor feels that you have been neglectful and not maintaining your facility to the standard life safety code, they can begin to impose remedies on your facility as they would if you failed your health survey. This can lead to the loss of your Medicare and Medicaid funding, the transfer of your residents, or the temporary replacement of your entire managerial staff. The Fire Safety of your facility is just as important as its continued Health Safety if you want to keep your business afloat.
Your Surveyor Will Make Their Judgements Based on Two Criteria
There may be some misinformation floating around that surveyors label all infractions as equal but that is not the case. CMS surveyors judge each of your violations by the scope and the severity of each infraction. These judgements then go a long way to determining if your facility should receive time to correct the violations before remedies are enforced.
The scope of your violation is used measure the pervasiveness of the infraction throughout your facility to be at one of three levels:
1. Isolated
2. Patterned
3. Widespread
The severity of your infraction is given one of four classifications:
1. No actual harm done, with the potential for minimal harm or impact on residents and employees.
2. No actual harm done, with the potential for harm that does not result in immediate jeopardy of residents and employees.
3. Actual harm done to residents and employees that is not immediate jeopardy.
4. Immediate jeopardy to health and/or safety of residents and employees.
MyFieldAudits Will Prepare You for Your CMS Survey
Our standard health inspection forms, audits, and checklists will keep you organized. With the ability to share the forms with your staff, you can make sure that everything in your facility is in line with Life Safety protocols and standards. Real-time access to all your forms will keep you up to date on any self-audits performed, issues that come to light, and analytics that will help you improve and prepare for the real deal. To learn more about MyFieldAudits, contact us today at info@MyFieldAudits.com