Hospitals plan for post-pandemic accreditation surveys

All accreditation organizations are working on backlogs of surveys delayed by the public health emergency (PHE) declared in March. Waivers will no longer be allowed once that PHE is lifted. Hospitals with delayed inspections, testing and maintenance (ITM) of noncritical systems will need to create plans to demonstrate compliance once the pandemic is over. A hospital can use its pandemic response as one of its annual disaster drills, but the organization must be able to document having first activated its emergency operations plan. Logs and records for any ITM performed on critical systems also should be updated. Surveyors will still avoid COVID-19 hotspots, so hospitals experiencing a surge should contact their accrediting organization. (Accreditation Insider article, 10/22/20)