SURVEYOR – HCAS RPH (FULL TIME, PART TIME) Conduct thorough evaluations of home care pharmacy programs across the U.S. while utilizing critical thinking skills to analyze documents and protocols, as well as conduct staff interviews to assess compliance with accreditation requirements.
Requirements: Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) or equivalent experience. Current professional license in discipline required at time of hire and must be maintained. Five years of experience working in various components of a home care organization, including three years direct clinical experience, and 2 years management experience. Only candidates with home health experience and knowledge of the Joint Commission accreditation process will be considered. Strong interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills, expertise in interviewing, and PC proficiency. Must be able to lift 25 lbs, climb stairs and ladders, work in settings with infectious diseases, and travel nationwide 100% of work time. Ideal candidates will have experience in a culturally diverse work environment. Fluency in Spanish is a plus. Part time positions require two or three weeks of availability per month. Candidates must be available for one week of training. Qualified candidates may contact surveyorjobs@jointcommission.org
The Joint Commission's Division of Accreditation and Certification Operations employs full-time, part-time, and intermittent surveyors. By becoming a Joint Commission surveyor, you can demonstrate your commitment to improving the quality of health care provided to individuals in organizations, facilities, and homes nationwide through teaching, and as part of your surveying role.
This position is unique in its responsibilities, in its potential for having a positive impact on the quality of health care, and in the opportunities it provides for interaction with other health care professionals.
An organization invites the Joint Commission survey team to evaluate its progress in achieving compliance with Joint Commission standards for quality patient care. Surveyors function as evaluators, and educators during the accreditation survey.
As a member of the survey team, you represent the Joint Commission and its policies, procedures, principles, and purposes. Using your professional expertise, as well as your knowledge about the Joint Commission gained through a comprehensive educational training program, you assess a facility's compliance with the Joint Commission's nationally recognized standards.
Through discussions with organization leaders, you share your findings and provide guidance to promote compliance with the standards. A comprehensive survey report written by the survey team is used by the Joint Commission to make an accreditation decision.
Individual surveyors may complete surveys for some programs.
The role of the surveyor provides a challenging career opportunity because of the variety of facilities surveyed in various geographic locations. On a broader level, the services provided by the Joint Commission surveyors increase the field's awareness of the value of voluntary self-assessment and helps promote quality patient care.
The Joint Commission realizes that careful selection of its surveyors is critical to the quality of the accreditation process. Joint Commission surveyors are expected to identify and document all instances of a health care organization’s non-compliance with Joint Commission standards, as well as offer relevant and practical education that will assist facilities in improving their processes and systems to deliver quality patient care. Surveyors for the Joint Commission are selected on the basis of education and experience, and occasionally geographic location.
The position of surveyor offers an excellent opportunity to observe different health care settings throughout the United States. As a result of direct participation in the accreditation process, surveyors gain a broad understanding of the problems and accomplishments of their fellow health care professionals and of the facilities they survey.
The Joint Commission offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package for its full-time and part-time surveyors including the following:
- medical care
- dental care
- vision care
- employee life insurance
- dependent life insurance
- dependent care reimbursement account
- health care reimbursement account
- travel accident and voluntary accidental death and dismemberment insurance
- paid vacation
- paid holidays
- paid personal days
- paid sick days
- leaves of absence
- long-term disability
- retirement plan
- 401(k) plan
- 403(b) tax sheltered annuity
- group auto/homeowners/critical insurance/pet insurance
- credit union
- professional recognition days
- workers compensation
The Joint Commission offers its intermittent surveyors a benefit package that includes professional recognition days, travel accident, workers compensation, 403(b) tax sheltered annuity, and group auto/homeowners/critical insurance/pet insurance.
The education of surveyors is one of the Joint Commission's most important endeavors. The education program for surveyors is comprehensive and practical. The Joint Commission's surveyor education is coordinated through its Division of Accreditation and Certification Operations.
Surveyors begin their education with corporate orientation that is facilitated online through video conference and self-study assignments. Corporate orientation provides surveyors with an overview of the Joint Commission and the surveyor's role in the accreditation process. It is designed to educate surveyors on how to interpret standards, assess compliance, and to document survey findings. Detailed reference materials are supplemented by didactic and interactive lessons. Data gathering, interviewing techniques, and methods of dealing with multiple survey situations are also examined.
After successful completion of the corporate orientation and training, new surveyors are expected to sit for and successfully pass the Joint Commission's Surveyor Certification Examination. Following the examination, there is a preceptorship in which each new surveyor’s survey techniques are observed over the course of several on-site surveys. During the preceptorship, new surveyors assume survey responsibilities gradually until they are able to conduct the entire survey. The new surveyor is then assigned to surveys.
Surveyor education does not end here. The Joint Commission offers additional education to all surveyors through its annual surveyor conference where surveyors meet to discuss issues relative to the field, the latest developments in accreditation standards and the survey process, and complete exercises aimed at developing surveyor consistency. Newsletters, teleconferences and distance learning technology also keep Joint Commission surveyors up-to-date on accreditation issues. Joint Commission surveyors make a commitment to be continuous learners.
Surveyors use laptop computers to enter and process their survey findings. On the last day of a survey, they use the computers to provide a preliminary report of the survey results.
Laptop computer technology improves surveyor performance by:
- guiding surveyors to the right standard(s) for the issue being surveyed.
- prompting them to enter standards-specific data.
- automating (for consistency) the scoring of standards.
- enabling them to flag specific items for post survey review.
- providing on-line resources (such as guidelines) and prompts.
These changes in turn lead to improvements in:
- the validity, consistency and reliability of the accreditation report.
- surveyors' ability to provide a preliminary report on-site at the end of the survey.
- turnaround time on the official accreditation decision report.
Qualifications for surveyors include:
Five years of recent health care experience including three years of direct clinical experience in the appropriate health care setting and two years of senior management experience.
Contemporary knowledge of and experience in health care operations, clinical practice, use of performance improvement methods to assess organizational performance and current research and trends relative to health care practices.
- critical thinking
- interpersonal
- problem solving
- interviewing
- teamwork
- organizational
- written and verbal communication
- computer
- Physicians must have a degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathy (DO).
- Nurses must have graduated from an approved school of nursing and a Master’s degree in an appropriate discipline.
- Administrators must have a Master’s degree in a health-related field.
- Medical technologists must have a Master’s degree in a related discipline.
- Pharmacists must have a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (Pharm D.) or equivalent.
- Respiratory Care Practitioners must have a bachelors degree; a Master’s degree in a related discipline is preferred.
- Social workers must have a Master’s degree in Social Work.
- Psychologists must have a Psy.D Ph.D. in clinical psychology or a related psychology specialty.
- Other health care practitioners must have an advanced degree (Master’s or Doctor’s) in their related field.
- Current professional licensure in related disciplines (when required by law) at time of hire.
- Physicians must be Board Certified or Board Eligible at time of hire.
- No history of adverse action(s) relative to current or previous professional license, provided such adverse action did not result solely from an individual's health status.
- Medical Technologists must be registered with a nationally accredited organization.
- Surveyors must obtain and maintain Joint Commission surveyor certification.
- participation in continuing education programs
- teaching skills
- previous involvement in and/or a clear understanding of quality improvement functions
- knowledge of applicable regulations
- able to travel 100% of work time
All Joint Commission surveyors should be comfortable with public speaking, as they are required to conduct in-service educational programs relating to specific problem areas in the facilities they survey. Because surveyors travel for extensive periods of time, physical stamina and good health are essential. Surveyors should also be able to lift 25 pounds, as they are required to carry laptop computers and related attachments and equipment. They must also be able to climb stairs and ladders, and be able to work in settings in which infectious diseases are present.
It is not necessary for surveyors to relocate. However, nationwide travel is required. They must also be available to drive a personal vehicle up to 200 miles.
All full-time surveyors are required to be available to survey 12 months per year. Part-time surveyors are expected to be available to conduct surveys two or three calendar weeks each month. Intermittent surveyors must be available to survey at least one calendar week per month.