Nursing Facility Systems and Safe Resident Care

We break down what a systems-based approach really means in nursing home quality and compliance and why a solid process beats relying on individual effort. We share a practical meeting and worksheet example, plus how to adapt when real-world disruptions threaten consistency. 
• shifting focus from individual performance to repeatable systems 
• using daily interdisciplinary meetings as a dependable communication process 
• building meaningful tools and worksheets that connect multiple roles 
• avoiding disengagement when processes are not followed consistently 
• tweaking workflows when schedules and competing demands interfere 
• creating a culture where staff feel safe to speak up 
• balancing flexibility with accountability to protect quality and compliance 
Please feel free to reach out to Verity Consulting at VerityTeam.com if you'd like further assistance with your healthcare compliance needs. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hello, I will be your host. My name is Deanna Fi. I am a registered nurse and healthcare analyst. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

The views or opinions expressed in this podcast are for informational purposes only, not intended as legal or professional advice, and may not represent those of Verity Consulting. Although we make strong efforts to make sure our information is accurate at the time the podcast episode was recorded, Verity Consulting cannot guarantee that all information in this podcast is always correct, complete, or up to date. All information in this podcast is subject to change without notice.

Daily Meetings As A Working System

When Schedules Change And You Adapt

SPEAKER_00 0:54

In today's episode, I want to talk about what you you've heard these words, systems-based approach to managing and improving health care quality and compliance. I know that's a mouthful. So what I'm saying is having a system in place, a system that helps to manage health care quality and ultimately compliance. So when you have a system in place that everybody can follow, they know what everybody's supposed to do. So what I'm going to do is kind of break that down a little bit. And I will just say essentially that we're talking about shifting the focus from an individual to having a system. So, you know, again, everybody knows who's do what we're doing. We have a system. Okay, so I know this sounds really simple, very elementary in many aspects, but I'm going to kind of break this down a little bit more. So a facility, a nursing home has many, many systems in place. Okay. But I'm talking about some systems that keep things going on a day-to-day basis, communication systems, for example. So I'll use some illustrations with that. So let's use this example. On a day-to-day basis, the nursing home administrator, the director of nursing will have generally Monday through Friday, daily meetings where the interdisciplinary team comes together and has morning meetings. They might call them stand-up meetings, clinical meetings, different kinds of meetings where everyone comes together to talk about what's going on in the facility, what's going on with resident care. Okay? So there's a system. We have a system. We gather at a certain time. And part of that is we have tools, we have worksheets. So just to be clear, we have a system. We know when to show up, who should show up, we have tools, we have maybe worksheets. So we already have some kind of a system in place. That's good. So we're already, we're already moving in the right direction. All right. So that helps keep everybody focused, and we have a reliable process that is easily rep, we can replicate that, and it's consistent. And that's really important. Everybody knows what to expect, who's doing what, and we all are used to that process. Everyone comes prepared, is organized, and is ready to go through that process. Because when that occurs, the process moves quickly, efficiently, and that's the overall goal. Because then that means the system is working, okay? With the ultimate goal of making sure we touch upon the important issues that address resident health care quality and safety, and ultimately to maintain compliance with the facility goals. So we do need to have a well-designed tool that really brings, you know, interconnects all of the different processes. So each discipline that comes together has different areas of focus, okay? So let's see, physical therapy, for example, or the therapies, they come with different focuses. They they bring different areas that they want to talk about, whether that be regulatory, uh resident care goals, they have different things that they're going to bring. Okay. The nursing home administrator has very different things that they are going to be bringing. Uh, they want to know about, okay. So we know that there are several interconnecting points of information that need to be uh brought together in a meaningful worksheet or tool, okay? And that document needs to be meaningful and followed and uh utilized consistently. Otherwise, really, what value is it to have it at all? Why, because people will start to devalue it if it's not used. And they'll they'll be disengaged, they they won't follow it. And then next thing you know, folks just won't come to the meeting, or if they do come to a meeting, they're not prepared. And that further that can contribute to the erosion of you know, a very cohesive team. And that that certainly isn't good for the facilitation of good resident care knowledge sharing. Now, we do know sometimes we have to tweak a process. So sometimes other processes will change that will affect the process we've been doing all along. So let's say, for example, we have a daily meeting every day at 10 a.m. It's our, let's say, clinical meeting, and that's when we're talking about actual resident care issues. The director of nursing runs that meeting, and we we've had that down. That's a well-oiled machine, and everybody knows what you're supposed to do, comes well prepared. But now we've had an interference. Something else came up that interferes with that. Oh, let's say the medical director is making rounds at that, let's say at uh 9.30, and that's the best time for the physician to make rounds. So it's throwing off the time now for that clinical meeting, has to get pushed to 11, but that then throws other things off. So sometimes those things do happen, and that in an in a busy organization, those things can occur. So when that does happen, this is a good time for the team to say, okay, let's not, let's not worry. There are ways we can tweak things, we can make some modifications, and we can adapt and maybe change our tools to collect our information a little bit differently, but still be as prepared as always, but just change things a little bit. Because there will be processes that impact what we do. And that that's such a common common thing in healthcare. So there will be times when you have to tweak to keep things moving forward. But we don't want to stop doing what we're doing, just have to modify it a little bit.

unknown 8:00

Okay?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

If you cannot modify what's contributing to changing what you've been doing. So it is important to be flexible and to tweak when you have to, because then that resiliency will help keeping the pro help keep the processes moving in the right direction.

unknown 8:22

Okay.

Speaking Up And Accountability

SPEAKER_00 8:23

And it's also important that the team recognizes that, hey, we can solve problems, we can make things work, we can stay on track, we can work this out, you know, we we can find other ways to share information. Because at the end of the day, we really want to make sure we move in the in a the right direction to share information to help our team. Okay. We also want to create a culture where individuals feel that they can speak up and say, this process really isn't working. Or some members don't seem to be following it, and that's impacting the information that I'm getting, or the information that I'm getting, I can't move forward in my own work. I I bring this up because sometimes people don't always feel comfortable speaking up. And for an organization to be very successful and have a meeting that have processes that are built to have a system that is effective and a team comes together well prepared. We have to have a culture of people willing to say, wait a minute, this just isn't working. And I feel safe to say that, and there's not going to be implications for that, or you know, you're really not maybe you have you lack an understanding, or maybe I have a lack of understanding, and to create that culture of safety and speaking up. Because sometimes it's not so much that the person isn't doing something right, but maybe the system, there's something in the system that's throwing off that person, or another system is impacting that person from getting what they need. So it's really important for people to feel comfortable speaking up and saying, wait a minute, something isn't quite right here. Now, ultimately, there are times when we do need to hold people accountable to adhere to really the ground rules. We need to come prepared and be ready to report on whatever the issues are, whatever our role is to report on, because ultimately we're there for, we're all there for the same reason to provide the highest level of resident care, quality of care. And we we want to maintain compliance with our organizational goals. Okay, I'm not pulling, I'm not pulling my part, I'm not doing my part. So yeah, there are going to be times when the leadership needs to hold accountable people. And that's really important because we know to for a well for a system to work well, we need to know that part of that system is that the leadership team will step up and say, hey, wait a minute. By you not doing your part, you're affecting the system. You're holding us all back. So accountability is a big piece to that because we want to have a successful uh organization with good systems in place.

unknown 11:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

So just to go over this one more time, you hear a lot in our healthcare system about a systems-based approach to improving health care quality and maintaining compliance, regulatory compliance with all of the different requirements. And there are so many interconnecting components in healthcare. So if you have a really good system that's focusing on well-built processes, not the persons, people will know what to do. They'll be able to pick up the quote playbook and they'll know what to do. And anybody can just step into place. So, say I'm the nursing home administrator and I need to step out for a meeting, or I need I'm on vacation. Someone can step in for me and pick that right up and take it from there in my place, because it's a well-built system, it's a well-built tool worksheet, it's a system that's going to be sustainable and it can be replicated, and it'll be one that we've worked the bugs out and it works well. So that is what I wanted to convey today in this episode. Now, the next episode, what I want to talk about are those cases where there are organizations that are part of a chain, and uh there's the corporate component where a corporation will come in and look to determine are the corporate systems in place. So I'll talk a little bit about that in the next episode. Thank you for listening and stay tuned for the next episode. Thank you for listening. Your time is appreciated. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Vital Compliance Insights and found this to be informative. Please feel free to reach out to Verity Consulting at VerityTeam.com if you'd like further assistance with your healthcare compliance needs. Stay tuned for the next episode.