The impact of survey delays on nursing home quality and consumer information
By
Steven Littlehale
May 24, 2024
In a column published by McKnight’s in December 2023, “Revamping CMS Survey Data Integration Amid Regulatory Lag in Nursing Home Oversight,” I urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...
A bad surveyor workplace hurts providers
By
Elizabeth Newman
Jan 31, 2018
As difficult as your job may be — and I know there are many long days — it’s worthwhile to remind yourself it could always be worse. You could be a nursing home surveyor in Idaho.
Operate with an eye on quality, not the next survey cycle
By
Steven Littlehale
Mar 16, 2012
The anxiety associated with an impending survey should be offset by the fact that the nursing facility holds the secret to its own success – the knowledge of its customers.
The staffing rule’s Swiss cheese factor
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 08, 2023
There’s a glaring hole in the proposed federal staffing mandate, and no, I’m not talking about that same blackhole that’s apparently sucked in 190,000 skilled nursing workers with no sign of spitting...
Practice makes perfect for state surveyor visits
By
Elizabeth Newman
Jun 13, 2013
A visit from state surveyors should be seen as a chance to “put on a show,” a long-term care expert says.
Something’s got to give…
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Dec 01, 2021
I read recently that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is back at it again. Instead of reasonably mandating surveyors be vaccinated, just as CMS has required nursing homes to be vaccinated,...
How soon is soon enough?
By
William Vaughan
Jul 31, 2013
The word “immediate” in the State Operation Manual, Appendix PP – Guidance to Surveyors for Long Term Care Facilities can be interpreted in multiple ways. Determining the timing of interventions...
Any eggrolls with that, Sweetie?
By
Lori Porter
Dec 08, 2014
It so happened that in the drive-thru at Panda Express recently, I had an epiphany. Let me explain.
Cut the hypocrisy when it comes to flu shots for health workers
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 10, 2014
Providers get enough pressure about vaccinating their employees. They don’t need the hypocrisy dished out by surveyors too.
Why the New York Times’ ‘hatchet job’ shows better days are coming to long-term care
By
John O'Connor
Aug 26, 2014
A pall hangs over this sector at the moment, thanks to the New York Times.