Page 46
A C C R E D I T A T I O N
your facility for a breach in infection control. Like the surveyor who insists that you put an extra illuminated exit light at the end of a hallway that points to the left … when there is no other way to go but left. Or like the surveyor who dings you for not labeling the basin of saline on the back table. These are actual dings from actual surveys shared by your actual colleagues. Yes, sometimes it feels as if surveyors have got to write you up for something. Right, Kim Mills, RN?
Roof pollen and protruding pictures
Ms. Mills is the nurse manager of the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Md. Her most recent survey experience was laughably bad. "Pickiest people I've ever seen," she says of the 7 surveyors who camped out at her facility for 5 days in May. "It was awful, the worst we've ever had. We did fine, but it was a horrific experience."
How bad was it?
One surveyor noted that there was excessive pollen on the rooftop. "When he said that, I wanted to shove him off the roof," jokes Ms. Mills. "Are you kidding me?
We dared him to cite us for that. We told him to come back in December and there'd
