Preparing for accreditation: We’re less than a month away
Like hosting guests in your own home, preparing to host an Accreditation Canada surveyor at our Coastal acute care facilities between June 22 – 26, 2015 takes a bit of preparation to ensure all of the logistics go smoothly.
A broad look at acute care in Coastal
With a couple of small exceptions, the surveyors will be focusing on our acute care programs and facilities this year. They will be interacting with patients, interdisciplinary care team members, physicians and other support staff throughout our eight Coastal acute care sites in a variety of areas including:
- several different Emergency departments
- obstetrics
- inpatient mental health
- perioperative and surgical care
- infection control
- critical care
- medical device reprocessing
For a better idea of all of the areas our surveyors will be visiting and the types of tracers they will be conducting, check out a detailed Site Visit Schedule on VCH Connect. A more in-depth “playbook” is being prepared for all sites and teams hosting tracers, with all of the logistical details and other useful information.
But just because you don’t work in one of the areas hosting a tracer doesn’t mean that you won’t find yourself interacting with a surveyor.
Preparation is for everyone
“The surveyors have free reign to speak to anyone on the premises in any of our facilities,” says Accreditation Leader Serena Bertoli-Haley. “That’s why we’re encouraging all staff to familiarize themselves with the basics of making a great first impression and have prepared some quick visual prep tools in our Getting Ready to Host information,” she adds.
The host preparation information provides staff with more details on the types of activities the surveyors will be involved in including:
- Tips for selecting patient charts for the surveyors to trace
- Consent forms for patients so they can be informed participants in the tracers
- Common types of documentation and information resources that surveyors are likely to request during a tracer
- The role of a site host
“Like we’ve said before, accreditation is a peer review, not a ‘test’ in the traditional sense,” says Serena, “so it’s meant to be interactive and conversational.”
“We want to ensure that the surveyors have the best chance to see the good work that our staff do on a daily basis and that the pride in what they do comes out in the discussions during the tracers.”
Next week: Meet the surveyors themselves through their profiles as supplied by Accreditation Canada.