Healthcare Facilities Management –Using Continuous Survey Readiness to Ensure Regulatory Compliance

By Peter Costanzo, Director, Facilities Management Team

In healthcare, facilities records and compliance information must be up to date at all times. When auditors, such as the Joint Commission or boards of health visit for inspections and surveys, the last thing the facilities management team wants is to be scrambling to gather the right information and present it in an easily understood form. Continuous compliance or continuous survey readiness is a proven way to meet the demands of different standards and regulations.

Here are four things to know about continuous compliance:

1. Continuous compliance focuses on five processes. These include process development, deficiency identification, prioritizing the work needed to address deficiencies, ongoing surveillance and corrective action, and continuous improvement.
   
   
2. The key to effective continuous compliance is easy access to data. A common obstacle is data silos which make it hard to comply with standards and regulations.
   
   
3. An integrated facilities management system can reduce costs and simplify continuous compliance. With a push of a button, it’s possible to report on condition assessment, environment assessment and monitoring, building operations, emergency preparedness, and more.
   
   
4. Integrated facilities management leverage existing data by linking disparate systems together. It’s important to look for facilities management solutions with an open architecture. Another consideration is finding a system that takes a modular approach that can be expanded over time.

With continuous compliance and the right technology infrastructure in place, it is possible for healthcare facilities managers to find the right balance between compliance and cost control. What challenges does your organization face with regard to facilities management and regulatory compliance? Have you tried continuous survey readiness and if so, how did it work? We’d be interested in your experiences. To learn more about how a flexible facilities management system can support continuous compliance initiatives, download our white paper The Healthcare Facilities Manager’s Dilemma: How to Ensure Compliance While Driving Down Costs.

Learn more about our Facilities Management Team.