HQAA Blog

When you become accredited, you agree to maintain the accreditation standards for all three years, not just the few months prior to the triennial survey. Not doing so can be costly for many reasons.

This year, many companies will be renewing their accreditation for the first time. If you’re renewing your accreditation, the last thing you want to hear come out of a surveyor’s mouth is the word “deficiencies.”

After reviewing the renewal survey information, we have found that there are a few deficiencies that seem to be cited regularly. Below we show you some of the top accreditation deficiencies and how to avoid them.

On August 16th the Accreditation Organizations received the notice below from CMS and we were asked to share the information with all suppliers.

I know this may come as a shock to everyone, but I love Quality. I love the concepts of Quality and I love taking those concepts and applying them to our everyday work life. 

At a recent all-staff meeting, we played the Butterfly Activty. I hadn’t played this one before, and I thought, what an odd name. I didn’t see any connection between butterflies and how this could be an example for us. I was happily anticipating how this would play out.

Whether you keep paper or electronic personnel files, you must maintain them in a secure and organized manner so they will be ready for your surveyor during your unannounced survey. A good best practice is to audit your personnel files two to four times annually to ensure that the files are complete and up-to-date. 

There are a few items that are commonly marked as personnel file deficiencies. Make sure the following articles are completed, organized and stored in a secure fashion.

Before your survey, you need to submit your organization's written policies that describe your cleaning processes. Your surveyor should ask to see this prior to the survey to familiarize themselves with your policies. 

Your HME cleaning processes and policies should address: