Last month, we received our annual survey from DNV, an accreditation organization that represents CMS ( Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).
“In order to be able to care for patients, UMC has to be accredited by CMS ,” said Carrie Jennings, Assistant Director of Performance Improvement. “As a result, we are surveyed every year by our accredited organization (DNV) which reports our survey results to CMS. And doing well on our survey means we provide very good care to our patients.”
The DNV has surveyors come in and examine process’ that the hospital is following, and notes the strengths and weaknesses. The organization allows the hospital to decide how to grow the weakness into strengths, and gives the hospital a chance to use their own innovation to do so. This idea of self-improvement is a positive approach to surveying and makes the process welcomed.
This year surveyors had to come virtually; even so, they were impressed, especially by the work done by our entire team for cross-training for the COVID surge and by all the accomplishments we have made during the pandemic. They commented that our hospital is a high-performance organization, and we encompass a peer support team.
DNV recognized noteworthy efforts some of these include:
- Infection Prevention & Control leaders in the community in thinking outside of the box
- UMC EMS visits with people who frequent the EC
- Warm handoffs for patients with cancer from the nursing units to the cancer center
- Nursing “harm council”
- Discharge pharmacists for medication reconciliation
- Specialty pharmacy
- Impressive documentation by nursing—some of the best seen!
- Videos used to support the mission and vision of UMC
Our positive results are because of you! Thank you for all of your efforts, and for making UMC grow and mature as a hospital.