Brief memos, tips help prepare staff for survey
The education manager at Archbold Home Health Services of Thomasville, GA, knew she had a lot to cover before the agency received its Joint Commission survey in December 1996.
Although the agency’s inservices did most of the work, there always seemed to be a few gaps or, perhaps, some information that needed to be repeated.
"There were little things we needed to make sure the staff knew, and we needed to remind them of our mission statement and tell them what surveyors expect," says Linda Chick, RN, staff development coordinator of the not-for-profit, full-service agency that serves five counties in southern Georgia and four counties in northern Florida.
Chick’s solution was to put out regular memos, called "Education, Education, Education," about three times a month in the year before the survey.
She renamed the memo "JCAHO Minutes" for the three months prior to the agency’s survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations of Oakbrook Terrace, IL.
"It’s pretty effective," Chick relates. "We’d sit together and brainstorm in management meetings about what to include."
The agency made sure the staff read the memos by holding spot checks on some of the material covered in the memos. "We’d ask them questions a surveyor might ask them," she says. "And they’d never know who was going to be asked anything."
Chick believes the memos contributed to the agency’s successful survey.
"Our home visits were probably one of our best things; the surveyor said the visits in the home were great," she emphasizes. "The staff was very knowledgeable and followed the care plan just like they were supposed to because they knew what to expect."
[Linda Chick, RN, Staff Development Coordinator of Archbold Home Health Services, can be reached at (912) 227-6809, or by writing to: P.O. Box 620, Thomasville, GA 31799.]
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