SR/REG-5 - Moving from the Back Seat to the Driver's Seat: Building a Relationship with Your Survey Agency and Proactively Managing Your Facility's Survey

What can you do as a skilled nursing facility owner, administrator, director of nursing, or facility leader to foster a positive relationship with regulators? How can you be in the driver’s seat during survey instead of in the back seat, along for a ride heading for an unknown destination and hoping not to crash? We all know the state agencies and CMS have the authority to inspect and investigate skilled nursing facilities to determine compliance 24/7, 365 days/year. All too often the survey process and facility interactions with the state agency staff and surveyors can seem adversarial and critical. Your relationship with state agency and survey staff begins with you. In this presentation we will discuss and explore information key to understanding the surveyor’s role and their actions. We will provide insight into how to build a positive, working relationship with your state agency staff to communicate with surveyors, complaint investigators and the state agency effectively and professionally. The presentation will also discuss tips on how to proactively manage the survey process from a facility perspective to maintain control of your destination.