It’s a Monday morning and three well-dressed people with wheelie luggage just showed up at your ambulatory surgery center’s reception. It’s your turn to get surveyed.
Surveys from accreditation bodies can be stressful for the ASC’s staff and administrators. But there are ways to have peace of mind during inspections. One of the ways is by listening to experts’ advice.
In our recent webinar, Inspection at Your ASC: Through the Eyes of a Surveyor, dr. Biraj Patel and Ashley Poulos talk to an ACHC surveyor and an ASC consultant, Toya Brown, about how to achieve a successful survey.
You can listen to the full discussion on the PreferredMD Youtube channel or read crucial excerpts below.
What is accreditation and why it’s important?
Toya Brown: Accreditation is the measure of the quality of the health services provided to the community. It’s a commitment to that community that you’re going to provide high-quality patient care. It’s often required by the federal government because you want to build Medicare or Medicaid, as well as some insurance companies require it. Ultimately, it reduces the liability and risk to the center when they follow the standards.
Ashley Poulos: Is it required, if a facility is not going to be going through insurance or Medicare, to become accredited? Or is it just an industry standard that we should be doing at this point?
Toya Brown: It’s an industry standard, at that point, for that group. But I think that everybody wants to have accreditation. You want to assess your risk and liability, as well as ensure you’re providing great patient care to your community.
To deem or not to deem
Ashley Poulos: Well, once we’re looking to be accredited, what are some of the first steps we should take?
Toya Brown: There are some accrediting agencies out there, ACHC, also known as HFAP, AAAHC, QUAD A, a Joint Commission, and others. Once you’ve picked the accrediting agency you wish to work with, you then decide if you want to do a deemed status or a non-deemed status survey.
Deemed status is when the surveyors come on site, they have CMS deeming authority, and they survey your center using CMS standards, as well as the accreditation standards.
Whereas with non-deemed, the surveyors evaluate the center using the accreditation standards.
Ashley Poulos: Is there a reason why a facility would go one way or the other for their inspection?
Toya Brown: As an administrator for myself, I liked the deemed status because I could knock out two surveys at once versus having to do one survey and then wait for CMS to show up. So I prefer the deemed status, it was just easier for me as a leader.
Ashley Poulos: Is there a difference in the standards from an OBS to a facility?
Toya Brown: Usually, the OBS’ and surgery centers’ standards are pretty similar because you’re providing surgery to a patient and you still have the same infection control and other processes that need to be followed in order to maintain compliance.
Ashley Poulos: If you’re going through the deemed route, do you have to reach out to CMS directly or is that handled all through the accrediting agency?
Toya Brown: You’ll still have to fill out applications for CMS, but the accrediting company typically communicates with CMS and lets them know who is up for a survey.
Preparing for an accreditation can be a morale-boosting, team-building, educational process for your facility. Here you can find some advices on how to prepare and how to make the inspection day go smoothly.
