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E-mails help hospital train, get perfect survey score

Multiple training methods lead to success

Learning objectives: After reading this article, you will be able to

1. describe staff training methods for unannounced surveys

2. explain how to use the periodic performance review (PPR) to prepare for survey

3. identify other tools used to train for surveys

A perfect survey was a click of the mouse away for one Florida hospital.

Staff at Naval Hospital Jacksonville each week receiv ed e-mails containing basic JCAHO information, survey questions and answers, and challenging standards to help them prepare for the hospital's July 2005 survey, says Cmdr. Carola Miner, the hospital's perform ance improvement coordinator.

Miner's department created the e-mails--or "survey savvies," as she called them--which helped staff learn about the JCAHO at their leisure. The e-mails combined with the PPR and other preparation methods gave the 60-bed hospital no requirements for improvement and only a few supplemental suggestions during its survey.

"All that information prepared us for what to expect," Miner says. "It was just planning ahead."

Training for the 21 st century

Miner culled the e-mails from any available source of information about the JCAHO, including periodicals, she says. The e-mails began circulating in January 2005, and staff received them either weekly or biweekly.

"We used whatever source[s] we could come up with," Miner says.

When the e-mails first started seven months prior to survey, staff received basic information about tracer methodology to get them up to speed, Miner says.

The July survey was the hospital's first since the new survey process began.

Staff enjoyed receiving the e-mails, Miner says, and supervisors used them as educational cues during meetings. Miner also posted the e-mails on the hospital intranet so staff could view past issues whenever they chose.

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