(Donna) Thank you for joining us for our webinar,
"First Timer's Roadmap to Nursing Care Center Accreditation."
My name is Donna Rutkowski and I'll be your moderator.
Before we get started,
I'll go over a few items just so you know how to participate.
In the upper right corner of your screen,
you have a webinar control panel.
You selected to join by either phone or computer audio.
If you'd like to change that selection,
you can do that by accessing the Audio pane
and change that to something more suitable for you.
Today, we have two Joint Commission staff members with us
that will answer your questions.
So feel free to submit a question
by typing them into the Questions pane of the control panel.
You can send them in at anytime during the presentation.
We'll address them if we can during the Q&A session at the end.
If we don't know the answer at the time,
we'll get back to you offline after the webinar.
A few days after the webinar,
you'll receive a copy of the presentation slides
and a link to the recording via e-mail.
Today, we're going to introduce to you
the team that your team has behind you every step of the way
for Nursing Care Center Accreditation.
Sapna Patel, is the Associate Director in Business Development
for the Nursing Care Center Accreditation program
at The Joint Commission,
and Sarah Bujak is a Senior Account Executive
at The Joint Commission.
With that, I'm going to turn it over to our first presenter,
Sapna Patel.
(Sapna) Thank you, Donna, and good afternoon, everyone,
and thank you for taking the time to join this webinar.
Without taking any further time,
I will dive right into today's presentation,
but before we go into the details of how we can help you
through the accreditation process,
I wanted to just give you a little bit of a background
of The Joint Commission as an enterprise.
As you are aware,
The Joint Commission, at its core, is a performance improvement company,
and our goal is really to improve health care
delivered to our patients and clients
all across the continuum of care, rehab, accreditation program,
starting from hospital settings,
to nursing care centers, home health, lab, surgery centers
across the continuum of care.
And our goal really is to improve,
and we want to partner with the stakeholders and organizations
to really evaluate their operations
in order to improve the quality of care,
efficiency, effectiveness of their services.
Our well-recognized Gold Seal award
also shows the organization's commitment
to meeting the defined performance standards
that are uniquely focused on helping
to promote the safety of patient and client care.
Next slide.
Talking a little bit about the mission and the vision of Joint Commission,
we are really driven by our mission,
which is to continuously improve health care for the public
in collaboration with organizations
like yours and other stakeholders,
by evaluating health care organizations,
and inspiring them to really excel in providing safe and effective care
of the highest quality and value.
And we can accomplish this
through our standards and the survey process
that we have developed.
Next slide.
The Gold Standard in Private Accreditation.
The Nursing Care Center Accreditation is a voluntary approach,
which is taken by several nursing care centers across the country.
It is really not mandated by any specific state,
neither does it replaces your annual state survey.
But our accreditation process
really drives the quality of care and patient safety improvements
through nationally recognized, evidenced-based standards.
The Joint Commission standards are above and beyond the CMS requirements,
so any accredited nursing care center is pretty much well prepared
for the state survey.
The professionals that work in our Standards Interpretation Group
and our surveyors have been seasoned professionals
who have served the nursing care industry
for several years,
and we feel that we really understand the ins and outs of your daily routine.
Hence, our standards go beyond the clinical operations.
We have standards chapters on environmental care, life safety,
human resources, management operations,
leadership and staff competencies.
We feel that we have developed this foundation for quality,
as we wanted to be able to provide a holistic approach
towards the patient safety and quality of care.
Next slide.
Talking a little bit about The Joint Commission
and a high-level overview of our standards,
now I would like to talk
in specifics to our Nursing Care Center Accreditation program.
Along with the Nursing Care Center Accreditation,
we also have optional specialty certifications,
such as Post-Acute Care Certification
and Memory Care Certification.
If your organization,
or if you have a center that is specializing in serving
just the sub-acute or post-acute population,
you might want to think about, the Post-Acute Care Certification,
as an add-on to the Nursing Care Center Accreditation.
Same goes with the memory care.
If you want to develop that niche in the dementia market,
then you might want to think about the Memory Care Certification
as an add-on option.
Next slide.
So, in Business Development,
we will work together with you
to help you determine your eligibility for accreditation.
We will help you provide with complimentary access
to the electronic standards manual,
which is called the E-dition.
We will also share pricing with you.
We discuss your accreditation goals,
including a review of your timeline to achieve the accreditation.
We also provide you with some of the complimentary resources
that can help you prepare for your initial survey.
And then finally,
we, in the Business Development,
will help you, walk you through the completion and submission
of your electronic application,
which we call as an E-App.
Next slide.
Let's talk a little bit about the eligibility requirements.
You know, the general requirement would be
that the organization is located in the United States
or in its territories.
The organization is identified
either as a nursing home, a skilled nursing facility,
or even a long-term care facility,
and has been certified either Medicare-Medicaid, or just Medicaid.
I want to elaborate just at this point right here is,
if your organization is serving just Medicaid population,
or even private pay, and providing long-term care
nursing care services,
as long as your organization can comply with The Joint Commission standards,
you can still apply
under the Nursing Care Center accreditation program,
with The Joint Commission.
We don't necessarily need you to have the Medicare provider number.
As long as you can comply with our standards,
we can get you the Joint Commission Nursing Care Center Accreditation.
As far as the volume of the patients,
the organizations should have served at least five patients or residents,
and also to have at least two active patients or residents
at the time of the survey.
And for some smaller homes up to 18 beds,
we require the organization to have at least three patients or residents,
and have at least two active, at the time of the survey.
For add-on certifications,
again, for Post-Acute Care,
as long as you can comply with our standards,
the certification will be rendered.
And for Memory Care certification,
we do not require a secured memory care, or a dementia unit.
You can have dementia patients
placed in your either long-term care or sub-acute unit,
and as long as you can comply with our eight extra standards
of Memory Care Certification,
we can render the certification decision as well.
Next slide.
Once we have determined the eligibility,
we suggest you take a look at our electronic standards manual
called "the E-dition."
Joint Commission's E-dition is an excellent online tool
that is available as a resource.
It is complimentary, available for 90 days.
The standards are the basis of an objective evaluation process,
that a nursing home organization can measure,
and also perform a self-assessment
to kind of get an idea about
when do you think, after reviewing the standards,
when do you feel you might be ready for this project,
or you might be ready for a survey.
Joint Commission state-of-the-art standards
really set an expectation for organizations performance
that are reasonable and also achievable,
and, of course, surveyable.
Next slide.
A five-step application process,
it's a very simple process here.
You'll review your standards,
you gain the access to our online application.
The Business Development team
will help you and walk you through the application,
and help you submit the application.
We can verify the information that you've put into the application
and also verify the survey ready date,
and get you the access to our complimentary tools
that can help you prepare for your first onsite survey.
Next slide.
Applying for Nursing Care Center Accreditation.
When you do decide to move forward with the process
once you've reviewed our standards,
Business Development can help open up the access for the application
for your organization.
We collect some basic information
and, typically before we do our E-App call,
we will send you an E-App checklist,
which is just a basic information
such as, maybe the contact and the e-mail address
of the administrator,
the deal when, in particular to the ADCs,
we definitely would like to get the ADC of the center.
Now, a question comes in.
When we talk about ADC, how far do we want?
Is it a whole year? Is it six months?
Again, really depending on when you are applying.
ADC for a nursing care center might be different prior to COVID
compared to the ADC we have right now.
We're just looking at an average ADC
of, maybe, the past couple of months at the time of the application,
you know, just some of those information
that we collect at the time of the application.
And again, in the Business Development team,
we assist you to help you gather that information as well.
Next slide.
Applying for the Nursing Care Center Accreditation.
So, again, like I said,
we in the Business Development will open up the access,
and we'll open up the application for you.
The application is good for one whole year.
What that means is, as an example,
if you decide to apply in April,
let's say you put in a survey ready date in the application,
which we do ask
while you're submitting the application.
Let's say you put in the survey ready date of August,
but something happens
and you might have to push back your survey.
So, you have up till April 2022,
under that application, to get surveyed and get accredited.
So, the application is good for one whole year.
And we also request a non-refundable deposit
at the time of the submission of the application.
Once you submit the application, and once you pay the deposit,
you will then get unlimited access to our resources and tools,
along with a dedicated Account Executive.
Next slide.
Like I had mentioned,
survey ready dates is within the 12 months of making the application.
But something to think about
when you are coming up the survey ready date would be,
you might want to consider the timing for the state survey.
As I had mentioned earlier,
The Joint Commission standards are above and beyond the CMS requirements,`
so this can go in two ways.
Some organizations feel that if we are prepared for The Joint Commission survey,
then we will be prepared for the CMS survey.
So, that's great.
You can have both surveys
in the same survey window.
At the same time,
some organizations might feel
let's get through the state survey first,
and then we will take on the project of The Joint Commission survey.
It really depends on how you feel your centers might be prepared,
and might be ready to take on The Joint Commission survey.
We also encourage you
to maybe coordinate with the sister facility survey date.
This is really more for corporate organizations
that have multi-centers nursing homes.
We have seen some corporate organizations
phasing out their survey ready date,
so they might want to do one region in one quarter
and then focus on the other region the next quarter.
Some corporate organizations might pick out
based on the center's performance,
how they feel which centers might be ready first for the survey,
and they then come up with a phase survey approach.
It's really up to an organization
how you want to decide on your survey ready date.
We, in the Business Development, are always available
and we can help you and guide you through your decision
even with the phasing out of your survey ready dates.
Next slide.
Once you've applied,
there are a lot of tools and resources
that we--
all the applicants are assigned a Joint Commission Connect,
it's a secure customer portal.
All the communications occurred through this Connect site,
you're also dedicated an Account Executive,
and we'll hear from my counterpart
what is and how an Account Executive can help you through this process.
We have Standards Interpretation Group,
so anytime you're reviewing standards
and if you have any questions regarding a particular standard,
feel free to reach out to our Standards Interpretation Group,
and they will be very helpful answering your questions.
There are other tools such as Survey Activity Guide,
focused Standard Assessment tools, webinar replays.
We really want you to gain access
and enjoy these tools and resources
to help you prepare for the survey.
Next slide.
Within the E-dition,
you'll find prompts to assess your compliance,
written documentation checklist.
These prompts to assess your compliance
are more like a study guide for the survey.
The E-dition also has written documentation checklist.
Upon the arrival,
our surveyors might expect something as an evidence of compliance
in a written documentation.
So each standards chapter has a written documentation checklist
that will be requested by our surveyors
Our surveyors also use a tracer methodology
that really helps them
tracing a patient's treatment and care plan
to make sure that there is a compliance with our standards.
And then, we also have Survey Activity Guide,
which is a great tool
when you're really looking to plan your day for those surveys.
Next slide.
Again, we suggest that you include The Joint Commission standards
in your policies and procedures,
keep manuals, contracts, and documentations
ready and easily accessible,
engage your staff in this new process,
try to gain confidence from them towards this process,
try to talk about some of the standards in your daily routine meetings,
have everything be ready,
and maybe you can even appoint department heads
responsible for each chapter
to prepare for the survey.
Next slide.
The survey activity guide is, again, a great tool
that describes a sample survey agenda, hour-by-hour outline.
And this guide really helps you
to set your expectation for The Joint Commission survey .
And we have a very collaborative survey approach,
as we feel that we really want to work with you together
to provide the best quality of care and patient safety.
Our surveys are very collaborative
and less, or not at all punitive.
Next slide.
In the Business Development team,
we help you learn the standards,
we help you prepare and perform a self-assessment,
we assist you
and walk you through our electronic application process,
and then we transition you to your dedicated Account Executive.
who will then help you through your onsite survey,
rendering the accreditation decision,
intra-cycle monitoring, and also with your re-certification.
Now, we will hear more from the Account Executive
on how they can help you
once you have submitted the application,
and once you have submitted the deposit.
Next slide.
For now, I'll hand it over to Sarah.
(Sarah) Good afternoon, everyone. and we are one slide ahead.
Karina, just so you know.
There you go, thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Sarah Bujak,
and I am one of the Account Executives on the Nursing Care Center team here
in our Operations Department.
And I'll be explaining how our team assists organizations
throughout the entire process.
Each organization is assigned a dedicated Account Executive
that will be their primary contact throughout the accreditation process.
Also, Account Executives,
we serve as the main point of contact for any questions
or assistance along the way,
and we also provide ongoing education and resources to organizations,
pre and post-survey.
Next slide.
We are one slide ahead. Oh, there you go, thank you.
Before the survey,
The Joint Commission will provide the organization
access to our secured Connect site,
which Sapna had mentioned,
this site houses the organization's specific information,
survey notification,
and it provides all of the accreditation tools
and resources that you'll need along the way.
And this is also where we share current and past survey reports,
are housed here,
along with the survey activity guide, your survey agendas.
And the best part about this site is the organizations can control
who at their facilities has access to the site here.
Next slide.
So, here is the Home screen of the Connect site,
just to give you all a visual.
So, in the upper right-hand corner,
you'll see your organization's name, address and, we call it the HCO ID number,
it's Healthcare Organization ID number
that you are assigned here at The Joint Commission.
Number two to your left
is your Account Executive contact information.
Again, we are here to assist you throughout the entire process.
Feel free to e-mail us or call us whatever you may need,
that's what we're here for.
Number three below that
is the notification of scheduled events [inaudible],
and this is where we'll share the notification of survey
and we'll post it there for you.
Number four to the right of that is the "What's Due" section.
And in this section,
we'll notify organizations of anything that may be due soon
or is past due.
Some items that you may find here
are application updates, fees and so on.
Five below that is the official documents posted in the last 30 days.
So, any correspondence will be posted here,
including your Final Survey Report,
Award Letters,
and any documentation that we do post over here
in the last 30 days and afterwards,
that will be archived under the "Communications" tab,
at the top there.
In number six to the right of that,
you'll have any important updates from our leadership.
Number seven at the top,
I'm going to go into more detail about this survey process tab
in just a couple of minutes here.
Then number eight to the left, you have, I'm sorry, to the right,
you have the "Security Admin" tab,
and this is where organizations can add or remove users on the Connect site.
Number nine is our "Continuous Compliance" tab
where we have additional resources.
And finally, number ten is our "Resources and Tools" tab.
Here, organizations will find E-dition,
which is our electronic version of the manual, and other resources.
Next slide, next slide.
Alright, so now I wanted to go into a little bit more detail
on that "Survey Process" and "Resources and Tools" tab
just to show you how many great things are offered here on our Connect site.
First, under the "Survey Process" tab, we have the "Pre-survey" option,
and this is where we'll have the Survey Planning Tools
that contains the agenda,
and the Survey Activity Guide that Sapna had mentioned
goes into great detail
as far as all of the activities that take place during the survey process.
We, of course, encourage organizations
to review this ahead of time
just to know exactly what to prepare during the day spent with the surveyor.
And then, next to that, you have the "Post-survey" column,
and this is where we have the "Evidence of Standards Compliance,"
which we call ESC for short.
This is the "Plan of Correction" that the organization
is to submit post-survey.
And then below that,
you have your Award Letter and your reports from your surveys,
so all that information is saved here and you can access that at any time.
And then under the "Resources and Tools" tab--
Under the "Resources and Tools" tab,
you have our E-dition, which again, as Sapna mentioned,
that is the electronic version of the manual.
But you also have a couple of tools here under the "Tools" option
that are also great.
The first one is our Targeted Solutions Tool,
and that is where our leadership has developed solutions
to common problem areas within medicine.
One of which I know is always prevalent within the nursing care centers,
is how to prevent falls within the organization.
So, good information in there
but there's a variety of topics,
but that's just one that always comes to my mind
when I'm speaking to my nursing care centers.
Below that, you have the "Standards Interpretation" option
and this allows the organization
to communicate with our nursing care specialists
in the Standards Interpretation Group directly.
If you come up with any questions or compliance-based questions,
you can go here and it will enable you to communicate with them.
Then below that, we have our new "Heads Up Report,"
and this is excellent,
this is actually where we are sharing information
for recent surveys that we have conducted,
so common observations and deficiencies from those surveys,
what exactly the surveyors are seeing,
and tips and suggestions for any organizations
on how to prevent those deficiencies
from occurring within their own organization.
Tons of great information under those tabs there.
Next slide.
Your organization will be required to submit the electronic application,
or what we call the E-App,
and to access the electronic application,
you'll log into your Connect site,
and it is located under the "Survey Process" tab.
It is to be updated and submitted to us
on numerous times throughout the accreditation cycle
at the 9, 18, and 27 months marks.
And this is just to assure
that we, at The Joint Commission, are aware of any necessary changes
that have occurred at your organization.
We do track data on our organizations internally,
so, that's another reason
why we ask organizations to update this
and submit it during the accreditation cycle.
Next slide.
The importance of the application information.
The Joint Commission will schedule the surveys
based on the information that is provided in your organization's E-app.
So, with the information provided,
we determine the number of days that are required for a survey
and the type of surveyors that will be sent out to the organization.
That means that it is essential that the application is updated
with any major changes at the organization over time.
Next slide.
Not only is the application necessary to update,
but the Connect users are as well.
If there are any changes in staff at the organization.
it is essential to update those Connect users,
so that we are sending the necessary notifications and correspondence
to the right people at the organization.
The secure Connect site is only available
to those individuals that you have authorized
on behalf of the organization to communicate
with the Account Executive
or anyone else here at The Joint Commission.
So, to update any of those Connect users,
you'll simply go over that "Security Admin" tab,
and click on "Update Contacts/Access,"
and here you'll have a list of all of the users for your organization.
And you'll have the ability to add or remove users
under this tab here.
Next slide.
The scheduling of surveys.
First, for initial organizations
who are going to be going through their first survey,
they'll elect a ready date,
and the ready date informs us
that this would be the first day
the organization would be ready for a survey,
And then, our scheduling team works to schedule the survey
as soon as possible after that ready date that the organization has elected.
Also, with initial organizations,
they do receive a 30-day notice.
So, of course, you know exactly when the survey is occurring.
The next group is the resurvey organizations,
who have a nine-month window.
And their due date for their survey,
or their last day of their nine-month window
is the day after their last survey that was conducted.
So, the nine-month window out of the three-year accreditation cycle
is how it works for the resurvey organizations.
Both groups do have the ability to elect 15 avoid dates,
which are just days
that you don't want your survey to occur on.
So if you know that some of your key staff are going to be taking some vacation,
or maybe you're trying to avoid your Joint Commission survey
from occurring during your state survey,
you can use those days however you'd like
during your survey window.
Next slide.
What happens after the survey?
The surveyor will post a preliminary summary of the survey findings
to your Connect site,
and it will be available for you on the site
until the end of the last day of survey.
The organization's report will then go through internal review
by staff here at The Joint Commission's central office
to assure accuracy of all findings and scoring.
The Final Report is then posted within two business days
for initial organizations,
and then nine business days for resurvey organizations.
After review,
if there are any findings which require an Evidence of Standards Compliance,
which, again, is what we call a Plan of Correction,
the organization will have 60 days
to correct the deficiencies and submit the ESC on the Connect site.
The Connect site does offer instructions,
and an FAQ document is available for organizations
when completing the ESC form.
But, again,
once organizations are working on that, if they have any questions,
or they need their Account Executive to walk them through that,
we are happy to do so.
Once the ESC is submitted and accepted,
the Award Letter will be posted to the Connect site
and the certificate will be mailed to the organization,
so the accreditation is there for a biennial.
Next slide.
The Final Accreditation Report and the decision date,
it does differ for initial organizations and resurvey organizations.
For initial organizations that have had a survey
with requirements for improvement or RFIs,
the effective date of the accreditation
is the date on which the ESC was submitted to The Joint Commission.
For initial organizations without requirements for improvement,
the effective date of the accreditation
is the day after the last day of survey.
Then, for resurvey organizations with or without any RFIs,
the accreditation dates are effective the day after the last day of survey.
So again, the ESC must be acceptable
when the organization has demonstrated a resolution
of all of those requirements for improvement
and has put a plan in place to prevent the deficiency from occurring again.
Next slide.
Once that Evidence of Standards Compliance is submitted
and accepted by our internal review,
the Final Report and Award Letter are posted to your secure Connect site,
and the accreditation is available on Quality Check,
which is our public site
that insurance companies track your station check
and, of course, just the general public can check that at any time.
And then, the certificate is mailed out to the organization.
Next slide.
Then, after the survey is completed,
all the post survey activity,
and the organization is officially accredited,
the organization does have continued support
during that three-year cycle to sustain that compliance.
They can, of course, go into the Connect site
and access all the tools and resources.
They have access to the Account Executive
and to our Standards Interpretation Group at anytime.
And they also will receive our monthly Perspectives,
which shares any news that we have here at The Joint Commission
and any research that we've done.
So there is plenty of support,
again, to sustain that compliance
during the entire three-year accreditation cycle.
And with that being said,
I'm going to go ahead and pass it over back to you, Donna.
(Donna) Thank you, Sarah and Sapna,
Before we get to answering the questions that came in while you were speaking,
I just want to share how you can learn more about our program
and how to get in touch
with our Business Development and Accreditation Operations departments.
You can see on this slide,
we do have pages on our website, which is very large,
we do have dedicated pages
for our Nursing Care Center Accreditation and Certification options.
We encourage you to go there early and often.
We do change it from time to time,
but that's where you can find information that is just solely about this program.
We also included on this slide,
we do have an address for our Standards Interpretation Group
if you'd like to submit a question to them.
We wanted to make sure
that you knew that you had this information available to you.
Next slide, please.
We also wanted to let you know
how to get in touch with our Business Development team.
Sapna spoke beautifully today about our program,
but she also has colleagues who also work with her.
If you need to get in touch with Business Development for this program,
please use the address that we provided.
Next slide, please.
And then, also for your Account Executive,
Sarah talked about the program and what she does
but she also has colleagues who also help to support,
so here's the information that you may need
if you need to contact your nursing care Account Executive.
Next slide, please.
OK, we're now going to get to--
Looks like we did get one or two questions that came in,
so we'd like to be able to answer those for you.
The first question
is in regard to the process itself,
and this is actually for Sarah.
Sarah, how soon can I initiate the process and become accredited?
(Sarah) That is an excellent question,
and thank you for submitting that.
To initiate the process,
you can start talking to us and submit an application
whenever you are ready.
If you want to use the tools and resources
to try to help you and your organization
to determine when we would actually be ready to roll your survey,
that is fine.
In short, to answer your question,
you can start the process today, and then let us know, again,
whenever you are ready to go through the initial survey,
and we'd be happy to schedule it
around your ready date that you decide on.
(Donna) Thank you, Sarah.
This question is about price, this is for you Sapna.
How is the pricing determined for my organization?
(Sapna) Sure.
The pricing for the Nursing Care Center Accreditation
has two components.
one would be the annual fees,
and then there is the survey fees.
The annual fees,
obviously, we collect the first month of the each year.
The survey fees are pretty much invoiced at the time of the survey.
And you must have learned from the presentation
that we just go through one survey every three years.
Depending on the average daily census of your center,
the annual fees are determined,
and so, the length of the survey is determined.
That's the reason why we ask for the average daily census
at the time you fill the application.
And I had also mentioned, regarding the deposit the initial deposit.
Once you pay the initial deposit,
that initial deposit is non-refundable
but it is, again, applied towards your any outstanding balances,
such as annual fees or survey fees.
If you do have any question regarding pricing for your particular center,
please feel free to reach out to me offline or even my counterpart,
or you can just directly e-mail your question to the e-mail address
that was listed on this presentation,
and then we can absolutely get you a pricing estimate
that is customized for your center.
Thanks, Donna.
(Donna) Thank you, Sapna.
I think this is another one for you.
This is asking why--the question is,
why should I get my nursing home accredited?
(Sapna) Sure, yeah.
As I had mentioned earlier,
Nursing Home Accreditation is obviously a voluntary accreditation,
but there's lot of benefits
to going this extra layer towards the patient safety and quality of care.
Obviously, the well-recognized Gold Seal award,
shows the commitment of your organization
that you really want to drive the performance improvement,
and you want to be able to deliver the quality of care.
The other reason is also,
it can create a competitive market.
The hospitals, the other home health agencies,
even patients and families,
they really know
what The Joint Commission is from the hospital standpoint.
Just having a nursing care center accredited through Joint Commission,
although if your facility is already a five-star,
but when you're competing with another four or five-star facility
and you have this extra layer of Joint Commission accreditation,
it definitely creates a competitive edge
in the nursing care industry and in your market.
Also, the accreditation helps your organization to position itself
for a greater reimbursement for value-based purchasing.
Several states and payers in the nation
have recognized Joint Commission accreditation,
and there's reimbursement and incentive attached along with the accreditation.
Depending on what state your center is located at,
you guys can contact us
and we can speak in more detail about that particular recognition
in your state or even the payer.
In particular to what we have just gone recently,
or even the pandemic,
we all know how severely
the nursing home industry has been impacted
due to COVID-19.
We also have customers who have reached out
to go through this voluntary accreditation process
just to gain back the overall nursing home reputation
and really gain the confidence of patients and their family members,
that their families, their loved ones will be safe
because our nursing care center has really gone an extra level
to show that we are really committed to providing the best quality of care.
So, I feel that there's a lot of benefits to The Joint Commission accreditation
going for the Nursing Care Center Accreditation.
As it also provides a continuum of care,
the patients that come to the nursing care centers
are from Joint Commission accredited hospitals,
and in lot of the states, even the home health
is Joint Commission accredited.
If a patient comes in
from a Joint Commission accredited hospital,
gets into a Joint Commission accredited nursing care center,
and then goes to The Joint Commission accredited home health,
they're going to be in safe hands,
just because there is this extra layer of standards,
the patient quality standards that we have come up with and developed
in order to provide this excellent care.
- (Donna) Thank you, Sapna. - (Sapna) Thank you, Donna.
(Donna) We have another one for you.
How far back do we need to show the track record for compliance?
(Sapna) Sure.
For initial accreditation,
we do not look back
to see if there was any standard of compliance.
For example,
if your nursing care center had any citations from the state survey,
and you've already corrected it and submitted it,
and you are in the process of accreditation,
or if you're thinking about accreditation,
then it will not impact the decision of accreditation
as long as your center can comply with The Joint Commission standards,
Now, for resurveys, we do look back,
and we just want to make sure
that we see the compliance to our standards
even during the intracycle, the three-year timeframe.
For the initial surveys,
we do not look back on any track records.
(Donna) Thank you, Sapna,
And I think this one coming up looks like it's the last question.
It's about someone who's new.
Can you identify, Sapna,
what resources might be helpful for our new Director of Nursing?
Possibly the E-dition, or what would you recommend?
(Sapna) Sure. Absolutely.
You can also go to our Joint Commission website
and, specifically, go under the Nursing Care Center Accreditation program,
and then you can request more information
via online portal, so that way,
you can set up in receiving
some of the routine information
and that would be the best way for you to keep up to date
with what new programs or resources we have available,
for someone who is not accredited
and who is looking for accreditation.
(Donna) Thank you, Sapna. That's our last question.
So we want to thank you all for joining us today.
We hope you found today's information helpful for your team.
We will be sending you out the slides and today's recording,
and you'll get that via e-mail, usually within two business days.
We want you to have a great afternoon, and be safe and well.