Home Health Documents Your Surveyor Needs within 1 Hour of Arrival

Start Your ACHC Survey on the Right Foot

No matter how ready your agency is, probably one of the most terrifying experiences is an unannounced survey. Even if this is your initial licensing or certification, and you hired a consultant who has never failed a survey, and he or she knows the surveyor. A Home Health survey will keep you in anxiety for the 1 to 3 days that the surveyor is there. In fact, in 15 years as a Home Health survey consultant, I can tell you confidently that 95% of my clients went for a drink after a survey. Ironically, it seems that even though surveys are one of the hardest parts of the Home Health industry, they’re also the most under-documented. Sure, you’ll run across the occasional “Survey Tips” blog post, but it’s never complete, never applicable for one reason or another, and in almost every case, so general that it doesn’t add any significant value.

At Smart Business Solutions, we believe in providing relevant information for Home Health Agencies. We want to see every agency, whether Home Health, Hospice or Private Duty, do well in their inspections. Part of this is to understand and have prepared some basic building blocks of a successful survey.

This is why The SBS Guide to Home Health Agencies has prepared a series of blog posts on various types of surveys that Home Health Agencies, Hospice Care Agencies and Private Duty Organizations may encounter, the accrediting and licensing organizations that will conduct these surveys, and what each one will expect. We go into detail, to help agencies prepare and conduct their own surveys. It’s our goal to empower the Home Health industry and ensure that each Home Health provider has a deep and accurate understanding of their regulatory body and what they are looking for. First, we will be discussing the ACHC and all the documents they require immediately as they arrive.

Home Health and Hospice Care Agencies that are undergoing initial certification and/or accreditation, needs to present the following documents for the entirety of their organization, but no longer than for the past 12 months. Companies that expect a re-survey need to prepare this information for the previous 12 months.

Home Health Documents Your ACHC Surveyor Needs Immediately

Home Health or Hospice Agency’s Administrative Information

1. The name and phone number of the main contact person for the survey

2. Your Organizational Chart

3. Active Employee List with Discipline or Title for Each Employee

4. List of All Sites, Branches and Services Provided, if Applicable

5. State Licenses, Certificates, Etc.

6. CLIA Waiver and Waived Tests Being Performed

7. List of Contracted Agencies or Contracted Staff and the Contracts

Patient Care and Treatment Information

1. List of Active Patients including

   1. Patient name;

   2. Diagnosis or therapy/equipment provided;

   3. Start of care date.

2. For the entire time the surveyor will be at your office, present a list of scheduled visits by field staff including

   1. Service type (Home Health, Hospice, Personal Care…);

   2. Disciplines of visiting field staff;

   3. Primary diagnosis;

   4. Start of care date.

3. For the entire time the surveyor will be at your office, present a list of scheduled deliveries, mail orders or planned walk in business if part of the service provided to your patients:

   1. Type of medication/therapy;

   2. Durable medical equipment, prosthetics or orthotics being supplied or delivered;

   3. The supplier’s date of first encounter or admission date;

   4. The address (if the delivery is part of the service).

Survey Preparation Starts with Great Consultant

A great consultant is another way to ensure survey success. At TT Medical, we can help with that! Call us today to learn more!

Having these requirements at the surveyor’s arrival will help with the overall image of the company. Agency owners and employees need to remember that surveyors are people too. Especially within organizations like JCAHO, CHAP and ACHC, surveyors often take the role as mentor/educator. Their goal is to pass agencies that they feel will not pose a threat to a patient’s safety, and that will attempt to provide quality services to the best of their ability, and within the accrediting organization’s rules. If your home health agency demonstrates the intention to be prepared and to learn about the deficiencies identified, surveyors will generally be nice. This is why preparing the items that surveyors will definitely ask for in advance will help portray an image of a company that is, at the very least, trying to abide by the rules and will take a conscientious approach to patient care.

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