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dards) chapter by chapter, month by month, and spread it out so it doesn't become cumbersome." Ms. Thorbin used a team of staff members and a little help from Microsoft Excel to match standards and policies for her last survey. She created a spreadsheet that listed every accreditation standard, then sent it out to unit leaders in charge of the clinic's various poli- cies. Those leaders then had to find a policy for their unit that met the standard, and link it to that policy in the spreadsheet. That enabled Ms. Thorbin to ensure that all standards were met and policies didn't conflict. She also created a "road map" listing all of the agency's stan- dards and where to find each corresponding policy. She placed that document on individual flash drives for the surveyors, simplifying their job. "The easier you can make their life, the better," she says. Ms. Adams says digital technology has been a huge help to the hos- pital, which recently switched to electronic health records. All poli- cies are organized digitally. She can access them with a couple of swipes on a tablet "instead of flipping through paper charts," she says. Ms. Flores recommends offering your policies in both paper and digi- tal formats for surveyors who "aren't as tech-savvy." 3. Keep your facility in top shape Surveyors will be looking at everything, from missed supply expira- tion dates to the cleanliness of your walls. Regularly scheduled inspections help keep your facility in tip-top shape, experts say. Ms. Thorbin says that while management-led walk-throughs were held more frequently leading up to the survey, her clinic also has a year-round schedule dictating when each department, like mainte- nance and environmental services, must go around and check for defi- ciencies. A similar practice is done at Ms. Adams' hospital, where every month environmental services walks around to look for any issues and check in with staff on problems like work orders that need to be completed. Every 6 months leaders from the hospital's environ- 6 0 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M A R C H 2 0 1 5