What a week!

Oh yes - it's that time again. The dreaded inspectors are back at the Long Term Care facility I work at. This happens yearly and it is never fun. They come and they stay for a week, watching our every move, following us with their clipboards and writing things down.
Now, I do realize that these inspections are needed. There are some bad facilities out there and it's important that all facilities be checked out and that we all have standards to maintain. That being said, I think all places should be held to the same standard. Did you know that each state has different rules? What's even more amazing to me is that my state has more rules to be met on the west side of the state than the east! Assisted living places don't even have to have these types of inspections.
I also think it would be nice if these inspectors would answer questions and maybe give suggestions on what they would do with some of our difficult patients instead of just saying we should handle things differently. For example, when a person falls we have to fill out all sorts of forms and reports. We are supposed to come up with a way to stop this without using any type of restraint or medication to sedate them. With most people we are successful, but some of our Alzheimer's patients just don't understand and will continue to try to get up and walk although they are physically unable to. We may then be cited by the state for neglect or not having a safe facility.
We are told every year when the inspectors leave that they are impressed with our care of our residents, they can tell we have a caring staff and they like the interaction we have with the residents. They are also always happy with the way our residents skin looks. We don't have bedsores, because we take care to keep them clean and turned to prevent this. However, although they can tell we take care of our residents, they will never leave without finding some things to give us citations on. A few years ago we got a citation on not having a policy on keeping our fly swatter clean! (and that's the truth) Of course, if you looked at our survey it wouldn't say that - it would be under the housekeeping and cleanliness report. The problem is that when the general public looks at these reports, nothing is specified so it really is hard to tell which nursing homes are not as good as another.
Oh well, as I said before, this is a necessary thing. We'll get through it, as we do every year. They will probably leave on Friday and then we can start the process of responding to their survey and writing up a plan of correction for anything they cite us on.
If you want to read another opinion on state inspections, visit my friend Nancy.