HQAA Blog

Who is Anti-Quality?

I would dare say that in a room of 100 people not one would raise their hand in response to that question.  We all want a “quality of life”.  As consumers we all want quality products; quality in the foods we eat, in the goods we purchase, in the cars we drive. We may not consciously think, “I want to buy a can of quality vegetables”, but we sure do all want to believe that the vegetables are of a certain quality with a certain taste and processed with a high level of sanitation and safety.  We all seek quality if not once but numerous times a day even if it isn’t a conscious thought.

The Boy Scouts' motto “Always Be Prepared” can often come in handy, especially when it comes to an emergency situation. Having working disaster and emergency preparedness plans in place before you need them, training your staff in advance and reviewing/testing the plans on an annual basis ensures you are prepared. You may never have to use either one, but if you do, you will have a more positive result in a potentially difficult time.

There are several issues to address when dealing with transporting your equipment. To meet the intent of the infection control standard properly you need to protect your patients from potential pathogens, transport oxygen properly, avoid excess dust and dirt on equipment and more.  

Follow these five rules to help you meet and exceed your standards for infection control:

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: