Long-Term Care Survey Alert

Here's a way to access everything you need in the heat of the survey.

When surveyors start taking notes about your medical director's poor performance, show them you have a notebook of your own to dispel their notions.

TSW Management Group is developing a notebook format for its nursing facilities that will consolidate a number of items, including a sheet the medical director signs each time he or she comes to the facility. Other items in the notebook will include:

• Any new policies and procedures, which the medical director will sign at the bottom acknowledging that he or she reviewed and approved it.

• Quality assurance committee minutes and any new suggestions for protocols.

• The overall pharmacy review for the facility.

"The medical director will review and sign off on what's in the book," says Kathy Hurst, JD, director of healthcare operations for Anaheim Hills, CA-based nursing home management company. "That way, when surveyors say the medical director isn't involved, we can say yes he/she is, here's the notebook showing that the person signed off on x, y and z," she adds.

The notebook will also sidestep the problem where the medical director can't recall if the staff conferred with him some time ago about a policy and procedure or other issue, says Hurst. "The notebook is intended to protect both the facility and the medical director."