Accreditation Consultants Help Health Care Facilities Both Before And After Surveys

If you run a healthcare facility, service, or organization, you know that earning accreditation opens all kinds of doors to new opportunities. Accreditation gives you the credibility you need to attract more patients and assures the community that yours is a legitimate and high-quality enterprise that can be trusted to provide a high level of care. If you are not yet accredited, accreditation consultants can be an invaluable help in your ultimate success. But the very best consultants provide expertise not just before an accreditation survey, but also afterwards on a continuous basis. Here's more about it.

Pre-Survey Services

--Assessment: The best accreditation consultants take the time to conduct a thorough assessment of where you stand vis-a-vis your accreditation survey. You may already be practicing and implementing procedures that would be completely acceptable by the Joint Commission, rendering it unnecessary for consultants to make any changes. As the saying goes: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

--Mock Survey: As a continuing portion of a complete assessment, the consultations should conduct a mock survey, much like one that would be conducted by the Joint Commission. As a result of this mockup, the consultants will provide written reports which include their findings on which elements of your organization may be considered non-compliant, as well as which specific processes may be in need of improvement.

--Getting You Ready: Once the mockup and assessments are complete, the consultants will get right to work. They will help to review and modify policies that will improve patient care and ensure compliance, then take the time to help you implement these policies effectively. This may include drawing up educational materials for employees, or even conducting educational programs.

Post-Survey Services

Some accreditation consultants will only take their clients up to the point of survey: after that, the clients are on their own. The best consultants will also offer post-survey services, including clarifying adverse decisions, or resolving issues related to a PDA or conditional outcome to your survey. They will tweak your policies and procedures until compliance is met or help you prepare an appeal if appropriate.

There are always Joint Commission policy changes to consider post-survey, even after you are successfully accredited. You can count on ever-changing alterations in standards and safety goals from the Commission, and good accreditation consultants will always be on top of the latest and make sure that your health care business is ahead of the game.

Make sure that the accreditation consultants you choose provide not only pre-survey, but also post-survey services: the credibility and high quality of your health care business is too important to leave to chance.