Strategy for Skilled Nursing Facilities: Mobile Survey Application

The Center for Health Care Quality (CHCQ) is implementing a fully electronic mobile survey application that will modernize its survey and investigation process and increase CHCQ's ability to capture key compliance issues and generate real-time reporting. A brief video highlighting the RSS Inspect tool is located on the UC Risk and Safety Solutions YouTube web page located at: https://youtu.be/_0eFkg-1KOo.

The RSS Inspect tool streamlines the survey and investigation process in the following ways:

CHCQ Surveyor

• Reduces the amount of time taken to complete and submit survey and investigation reports and receive Plans of Correction from facilities;
  
• Enables inclusion of comments and images for survey findings within the application, using the keyboard or talk-to-text feature and mobile device camera;
• Minimizes errors in report documentation with integrated survey checklist, findings-specific regulations language, and formatted templates; 
  
• Increases ability for CHCQ surveyors and managers to work from home successfully by reducing the paper and/or scanning needed to complete their survey and investigation tasks.
  

Facility

• Allows providers to electronically view current and past inspection results;
  
• Reduces the amount of time taken to submit Plans of Correction by eliminating mailed forms and enabling electronic submission to CHCQ for review;
• Allows facilities to communicate with surveyors regarding survey findings within the application.
  

Data Analytics

• Enables inclusion of "tags" within the application to classify content in multiple ways for use in reporting and item resolution;
• Seamlessly combines survey data into a state-wide analytics dashboard;
• Provides trend analysis to identify top compliance concerns.
  

CHCQ is rolling out training and implementation for the mobile survey application to health care facilities in three phases. Phase One will roll out statewide to all General Acute Care Hospitals, with estimated completion by January 31, 2021. Phase Three will roll out to approximately 9,510 additional health care facilities, with estimated completion by September 30, 2021.