We are strong believers in proactively managing your survey so your organization is showcased in its best light and your staff has a positive survey experience. We are not talking here about the job of ensuring compliance with TJC standards. We are talking about the key survey preparation steps that you take in the months leading up to your survey and the strategies you use to manage the survey while it is happening. While most of these are "Survey Management 101," sometimes these steps are overlooked in the hectic days surrounding your survey. So, let's review some basic survey strategies that support a smooth survey experience:

BEFORE THE SURVEY

• Develop a draft survey schedule based on the template agenda published on your TJC extranet site. Include names of attendees for meetings and room locations.
• Develop a Communication Plan detailing who should be notified about the start of the survey and how you will communicate during the survey. Include an updated telephone list.
• Study the 2013 TJC Survey Activity Guide on your TJC extranet site. It's a valuable step by step guide to all of the survey activities.
• Do a dress rehearsal of the following interviews on your survey agenda. Use the Survey Activity Guide for guidance re content:
• Orientation to the organization (first morning)
• Data Use Interview
• Medication Management Interview
• Competence Assessment Interview
• EOC Interview
• Infection Control Interview
• For the PI, Medication Management, EOC and IC interviews: Have all attendees read the minutes of these committees for the last year.  This is what the surveyors will read and you need to be on the same page.
• Review your most recent CMS and licensing reports.  These may be requested and will provide the surveyors with issues to pursue.

DURING THE SURVEY

• Distribute a copy of the final survey schedule ASAP. Include names of attendees for meetings and room locations.
• Share the surveyors' biographies with everyone.
• Designate a room as the surveyors' meeting room (which is separate from where other meetings are held) so that they can use this as a home base.
• Have the list of required documents ready on the morning of Day One (see Survey Activity Guide.) Make sure the documents are well organized and clearly labeled.
• Be ready to provide active census lists for all units/programs on Day One of the survey.  The tracers will be selected from these lists.
• Make sure that the outpatient programs have discharged clients who have dropped out of treatment or not had contact with the program for a long time. You don't want your census list showing clients who should have been discharged.
• Make sure that all attendees are gathered in the designated meeting room for the scheduled interviews on time with no stragglers.
• As soon as the tracer cases have been selected, notify the units/programs so that they can review the medical record and be prepared for the tracer.
• Assign escorts to accompany each surveyor and stay with them all day. Assign an MD for the MD surveyor and a nurse for the nurse surveyor (if you have those types of surveyors).
• Assign scribes to accompany the surveyors. They should record all questions asked by surveyors and all medical record numbers of records reviewed.
• Keep a list of all staff who meets with the surveyor.  These are the files most likely to be requested for the HR interview.
• Report to the upcoming locations what has transpired in the location that was just visited.
• Have each unit/program ready to present an overview of their program: patient population, services/program offered, what they do that is special.  This should occur at the beginning of the "tracer meeting" with the surveyor.
• Designate a "command central" room that is continually staffed by a PI manager who gets reports from the locations as they are visited and maintains a bird's eye view of what is going on throughout the survey.
•  Relay any requests from the surveyors for information back to command central so that they can respond to the request as quickly as possible.
• Meet at the end of each day to de-brief on the day's events and what to expect the next morning in the briefing. Include managers whose locations were surveyed that day. Identify issues that you can fix immediately.
• Make use of the Daily Briefings and the Issue Resolution sessions to clarify issues, bring material to the surveyor's attention, correct misunderstandings, etc.
• If you don't understand the requirement that the surveyor is referencing, ask him/her to show it to you in the standards manual so that you can be clear.
• Send out an email to all locations daily letting them know what happened that day. They may not be visited and will be curious.
• Arrange for quick, efficient lunches for surveyors. Time is limited and they always appreciate this.
• Remove all "Sign Here" or other reminder stickers from the open records.
• Do not include reports from TJC consultants in your minutes.

A TJC survey is an important event in the life of your organization. Taking the time and effort to orchestrate the event will pay off for the survey and beyond!