Surviving A State Inspection: A Peek Inside Assisted Living
Sep 21, 2024
Running an assisted living facility entails various responsibilities, one of the most scary of which is governmental inspections. These inspections are critical to ensuring that your facility complies with all applicable health and safety regulations, but they can also cause tremendous worry and anxiety. However, with a good understanding of the inspection process and sufficient preparation, you can approach these inspections with confidence and comfort.
In this blog post, we'll examine state inspections and how to handle them efficiently. We'll also provide practical advice on guaranteeing that your facility consistently meets all regulatory standards. Whether you're an experienced expert or new to the assisted living sector, this guide will provide the knowledge and methods to transform the state inspection process from a frightening obstacle to a simple effort.
Check out the video, too:
Understanding State Inspections
State inspections are routine evaluations that verify assisted living facilities follow state requirements and provide a safe, well-maintained environment for residents. They are often conducted without prior warning and vary greatly from state to state.
Pre-Inspection Preparations
Before your facility opens its doors, it will go through an initial inspection to ensure that it meets all of the appropriate standards. This pre-inspection is critical since it establishes the foundation for your operations. The inspectors will inspect everything, from safety precautions to operational protocols, to verifying that everything is up to code.
Initial and Subsequent Inspections
Following the commencement of your operations, you can expect an initial inspection to be conducted within the first year. This comprehensive inspection is intended to verify that your facility continues to fully comply with all relevant regulations. Subsequently, periodic unannounced inspections will be carried out to ensure sustained adherence to regulatory requirements.
What to Expect During an Inspection
Inspections might vary greatly in duration and comprehensiveness depending on the state. For example, in Colorado, inspections might last from a full day to a day and a half, with a major emphasis on properly inspecting all components of the facility. In Idaho, however, inspections can last up to a week and include in-depth examinations of rules, procedures, staff interactions, and resident care quality.
The Inspection Process
Inspectors often visit unannounced, introduce themselves, and explain their objectives. It's important that your employees understand how to handle this initial engagement. Your administrator and other staff members should follow protocol for welcoming inspectors and notifying the appropriate personnel.
During the inspection, the inspectors will study your policies and processes, interview staff and residents, examine the facility's physical condition, and ensure compliance with health and safety regulations.
Handling the Results
Following the inspection, you will receive an evaluation that details any faults discovered. These concerns are divided into two categories: core and non-core problems. Core problems are serious and may risk your facility's license, whereas non-core issues are less critical but still require correction. In Colorado, for example, facilities must submit a Plan of Correction (POC) detailing how they intend to resolve the identified concerns. This plan contains elements such as identifying the problem, explaining the solution, and outlining how the facility will monitor compliance going forward.
Tips for a Smooth Inspection
- Staff Training: Thorough training on how to interact effectively with inspectors is crucial. Additionally, staff members should fully comprehend the significance of compliance with regulations and standards.
- Regular Audits: Conduct regular and thorough internal audits to identify any areas of concern or non-compliance within the organization. By proactively addressing potential issues, we can ensure that we are fully prepared for any official inspections and maintain a high standard of compliance and operational efficiency.
- Documentation: Ensure that all records of every operation, policy, and procedure are maintained meticulously and kept current at all times.
- Communication: Make sure to maintain open lines of communication with your staff and administrators to ensure that everyone is well-informed and aligned when it comes to meeting compliance standards and being ready for inspections. Regularly discuss expectations, guidelines, and any updates to procedures to maintain a smooth and well-prepared operation.
Real-World Experiences
Our latest inspections in Colorado and Idaho went rather easily. In Colorado, we had to deal with six or seven minor tags, none of which were key issues. In Idaho, we had to make a few modest fixes, such as replacing a broken dishwasher and fridge and upgrading our background check documentation process. These inspections, while nerve-racking, demonstrated the significance of being prepared and proactive in preserving compliance.
Final Thoughts
State inspections are essential to the operating of an assisted living facility because they ensure that all standards for the safety and well-being of its residents are met. You may confidently manage these inspections and ensure the smooth operation of your facility by gaining a complete grasp of the inspection process, thoroughly preparing, and establishing a compliance culture inside your business.
For those starting their journey in the assisted living industry, check out our free Business Plan Checklist to help you create a robust plan that covers all necessary aspects of compliance and operations.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
hey everybody it's Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living investing happy to have you here on the Channel with me today excited to be going through uh something that that is pretty exciting I think a lot of you as you get into the world of Assisted Living are you know you're a little bit familiar with what's going on uh but we're gonna get into having a state inspection at a facility so if you're interested in what that looks like what happens how to handle that make sure you stick around for
00:00:30
today's video [Music] foreign welcome back to the channel uh as we mentioned we're going to get into having a state inspection at an assisted living facility today we had one come up at our facility actually both of our facilities recently so I want to kind of share that process with you what it's like and what to expect as you get into that before we jump into the topic though make sure you get over to assisted livinginvesting.net I have access I can get you access to our free underwriting calculator there I
00:01:05
just made some updates actually to it so you'll get kind of an updated version of it that has an extra Tab and more information there so uh if you are interested in kind of underwriting getting familiar with what it looks like to start an assisted living facility get over and get access to that underwriting calculator I've got a few examples in there for you on the calculator and working on building some courses for you actually right now one is a business planning guide that has a business plan
00:01:32
overview of the calculator and a few other bonus materials and then I'm working on a 12-week course that will get out to you as quickly as possible we're about halfway through the filming of those and then we've just got to get it into editing so we're making progress there if you want immediate access to those ones that are available get over to the website assisted livinginvesting.net we'll link it down below so you can get access to that free calculator and get on our email
00:01:57
list so for the topic today uh having a state inspection so basically what happens as you start operating your facility there's a few things that that is that's going to happen one is you're going to um you're going to have some like pre-inspection uh things that that happen before you get your facility they're going to kind of come look at it make sure that it is still going to work there's a facility that there's no issues and things like that then typically within the first year of you
00:02:25
starting your operations you're going to have kind of a start off inspection and they come in and they they look through everything and make sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and and you're in compliance with you do they may give you a few things to correct as well as you go through that process so it's something you want to be aware of but they don't tell you when that's going to happen and any subsequent surveys subsequent inspections they also don't tell you they just show up and
00:02:51
this is a part of their process so they uh what happens is they'll come generally earlier in the week and this is actually different in different states so in Colorado for us it is like a one maybe one and a half day all day type of a survey and they're going through deep stuff in Idaho they typically come on like a Monday or Tuesday and they are there all week long and they go through a whole bunch of stuff at the facility including uh looking at your policies and procedures going through kind of talking with staff
00:03:23
and residents uh they're they're looking at a bunch of different things and making sure that you are in compliance with the license that you have what's scary about that is they just they really they just show up and they knock on the door and they say hey I am or or you know our facilities are open they just come in and say I'm Sally uh with the state uh to do your state inspection uh for your facility and so one of the one of the things you have to make sure that you do as you go through this is
00:03:53
number one if your administrator is there they don't know how to handle this they they go in and they say oh yep let's get you signed in let's let's do the process of doing this and let them let's get you started uh with the inspection if it's one of your other staff and your administrator is not there for some reason um they should be doing the same thing they should do kind of the the intake of a visitor if because the inspector is watching this and they're going to make
00:04:19
note of it so they come in they should be okay let's get you signed in let's get you checked in um as a visitor and then I'll call our administrator's not here let me give them a call and see if we can you know help you kind of get through the the process and and then your administrator is going to be spending a lot of time with the state inspector and they're going to just kind of be helping you uh they're going to be kind of going back and forth and going through all the
00:04:45
different policies and procedures and what that looks like now once that state inspection is done regardless of how long they've been there they're going to give you an evaluation of how you performed and generally these are going to be things that you need to correct and there are core issues and non-core issues so core issue is you know you're in Jeopardy of losing your ability to function as a facility these are bad things and then there are non-core issues that these are things that you
00:05:13
should be doing let's make sure that you're making Corrections and also in the different states that I'm in they operate that differently in Colorado we have to develop a plan of correction we call it a POC and we have to write that and we have to say uh you know these are this was the problem this is what happened this is what we're doing what we've already done to fix it this is we're going to continue to do to fix it and this is how we're going to monitor it going forward this is kind of a
00:05:39
five-step process for what we do and then we have to submit those through an online portal up to the the state in Idaho they just give us a list on the on the portal and basically tell us you know you got to make some improvements here we're going to follow up with you in seven to ten days we'll have a phone call and you just tell us you know what are the things that you're going to be working on to to help make those Corrections and get back um on on track and you know what policies are you going to be
00:06:07
implementing and what's that going to to look like for you as as you kind of move along the process so these inspections they're going to be very scary uh and and stress inducing anxiety uh inducing thing experiences for your administrator for your staff for your residence throws everybody off because they know that this person is here to see how things are going and you know it just kind of creates a tense environment but it's also if needed that that's not to say that it's a bad thing
00:06:35
to have the stress come from from that experience it's it's needed you need these people coming in and making sure that you are up to date in your current and you're following uh you're being compliant with all the rules and regulations to operate an assisted living facility so it's a good thing it's just you see it it happen and I always get a text from my administrator hey States here they just came in for an inspection it's like ah crap um let me know what you need because I live out of
00:07:02
state and so I can't run over to the facility and be there and help out and getting policies and things like that I have to to be out of out of state and and just kind of sit back and and wait to see how it goes now both of those uh surveys that we had here just the last two or three months in 2023 actually went pretty well in Colorado we had um six or seven tags that we had to correct but none of them were were core issues and we were able to build out the plans of Correction and got those
00:07:35
submitted actually just last week so that was good and then the one in Idaho we had four or five things that we had to to make a few Corrections on and one of those was like our dishwasher didn't have a sanitation cycle so we had to buy a new dishwasher and we had a fridge that just kept shorting out we couldn't figure out what's going on and they said you know we had done electrical work on on in the wall and it was still happening so State said you need to just buy a new fridge so we were able to to
00:08:02
do those things really simple things we had some issues with background checks um and we'll get into background checks in a future video so make sure you stick around to the channel if you're interested in that but we had some issues just like tracking and documenting those back background checks were completed and we just need to develop a better process for that so those are some of the issues that came up for us in the inspection but we're able to get through them but inspections
00:08:29
can be scary they you know it can it can really rattle you um and your administrator as you go through that process but it's necessary and and you'll make it through it so if you have had a state inspection I'd love to hear about your experience with that comment down below and uh let's kind of share your experiences with that and if you're new to assisted living and you have questions about what a state inspection is and how it works make sure you comment down below for that as well so
00:08:56
we can help you out through the process and understanding what's going on uh and so yeah that's kind of what I wanted to chat with you about today state inspections uh how to handle them and what it's like so they're you know it's it's an exciting piece of owning an assisted living facility uh if you haven't noticed here on the channel we're trying to make a few changes in getting you access to things resources and answering questions that you have as well so if you have questions things
00:09:25
that you want to learn about as you're going on your journey to starting an assisted living facility make sure you comment those down below as well because I want to make content that is really relevant to you I've been doing a ton of research getting into a bunch of different Facebook groups recently and trying to to find information that's going to help you on your journey so if you comment down below I'll make sure we put that in the queue to get a video out that is kind of addressing the questions that you have
00:09:53
if you are interested in learning more about assisted living and how to kind of get started in the process make sure you get over to assisted livinginvesting.net get access to the free underwriting calculator and get on our email list I've got a 12 email sequence that kind of gives you a 12-week outline that's going to go in line with the course that we're creating that gives you step-by-step uh ways for you to get started on your Assisted Living investing Journey excited to have you on the channel excited to go through
00:10:22
this process with you and coach you through the the process of starting your own assisted living facility thanks for watching and have a great day
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