Hooray!

If you had been at my workplace today this is the look you would have seen on may of the employees! We just had our annual state survey. Last year we had an extremely difficult team come. They cited us for crazy things and didn't really care what answers we gave them. This year we had a different team, who were much easier to work with and appeared to have more common sense than what we have dealt with in the past. They met with our residents where there were no complaint or concerns. As a matter of fact - the residents told them good things!
Today the surveyors left after giving us only a couple of citations, none of which were for the nursing department and none that were serious. On top of that they really complimented us, saying it had been a pleasure for them to be in a place where the residents were so happy and it was obvious that the staff really cared about them.
We were all happy for this report and even happier to have them recognize that we do love our residents and take care of them to the best of our abilities!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

The picture above shows the way we are feeling at my workplace. You may remember this post I did about the state survey we had. Well - we had our follow up survey and were cleared of any problems. We have learned what to do with banana peels and how many napkins a person needs! Needless to say, we are all very happy to be done for another year. Our inspector this time was very thorough but also very pleasant which was wonderful! After she gave her report she actually came out and told the staff that this was a good place and we were doing a good job. And that is why we are doing the happy dance!

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You may also remember this post in which I asked for your help in what to do with my Dining room wall. The picture above is the one I asked for help with. Below is the same grouping after I followed your advice. Thanks for your help. I like the final outcome!

I'm outta here!

It's been quite a week. You may remember this post I wrote about a month ago about having the state inspectors come to the nursing facility I work at. Well - this week we had another inspection. This time it was the Federal Inspectors. I have worked at this facility for 18 years and only remember them coming one other time. Apparently a certain percentage of facilities are chosen randomly and are inspected, following the state survey. They are checking to see if the state survey and their survey are in agreement.
I must say that these inspectors were much more human than the ones we had from the state. They were not as intrusive or as demeaning so that was a nice change. They were very particular, but I think that goes with the territory. They left Thursday evening. Now we wait for the official results to be mailed to us and then we begin a plan of correction.
So - it's been a busy, stress filled week, but now I'm off. I have next week off and I'm going camping with my crazy sisters, Terri and Cheri. Our husbands are coming for the weekend and then leaving us to fend for ourselves. I won't have a computer so I'll be suffering from blogging withdrawal. I'll catch up with you all in a week!

They're gone!

I though I better update you on my last post. We survived, we are done, hooray!
The inspectors are gone and it is a huge relief. I think this was probably the worst inspection I can remember, mainly because one of the team members was completely unreasonable and very demeaning. I think they give these people classes in intimidation and she was very good at it.
We ended up doing very well and they did tell our administrator that there is a unique feel to our place because of the interaction between residents and staff. Of course - none of that is in the report and it wasn't mentioned to us, except by our administrator. Our crazy citation for this year was that all of our call bells cords are not uniform in length! We better get right on that, don't you think?
The sad thing about this is that not only does it disrupt our residents lives for a week, it sometimes drives people away from the nursing home field. We actually had a Dr quit a few years ago because he said he didn't need to deal with this. My good friend Nancy wrote this post today about how she feels following this inspection.
This is not the end, I'm sorry to say. They will be back in about 2 months to make sure we took care of the things they cited us on. In the meantime, we should be able to go back to enjoying our job!

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.