An overarching truth to success lies in the principle, “the best defense is a good offense.” Dedication to excellence is built not in the make-or-break moments but in the commitment to hard work and preparation along the way. Take any professional football team’s Super Bowl journey for example. Their career making success relies less on their day-of performance and more on the quality of the hours they spend improving skills, developing stamina, researching their opponents, and correcting mistakes in the year leading up to the big game. By maintaining an offensive position in your organization, you achieve continuous improvement, internal confidence, and refined tools to tackle any challenge that comes your way, anticipated or not.
In Healthcare, accreditation is the recognition of a commitment to excellence and continuous improvement of quality of care. To improve effectively in the ever-changing regulatory ecosystem, offensive preparation towards your compliance approach is critical. Think of Joint Commission Surveys as your game day performance – while continuous monitoring, identifying and mitigating areas of exposure, and mock survey practice are the quality hours you must spend in preparation for your big game. Your offensive strategy supports the overarching goal of being prepared for a regulatory visit at any time, not just a given window of time.
While internal regular audits are necessary to ensure day to day adherence and continuous attention from staff to regulatory awareness, an expert Quality & Regulatory Management Advisor provides an outside look to verify that the processes in place are risk-proof, adaptable to change, and meeting regulatory standards. Items that staff and internal quality leadership members has become called to are properly addressed and brought to light; internal quality team members are educated on new regulations or forthcoming changes; knowledge from experience and lessons learned provide invaluable knowledge on how to troubleshoot regulatory issues and how to address issues that arise during a Joint Commission Survey.
Regulatory Preparedness becomes a major stressor when it is limited to only that – preparation. Consistently feeling behind the eight ball during regulatory visits or compliance investigations are a prime indicator that your regulatory strategy has become one of defense rather than offense. Dedicating the time upfront to improve programs that are susceptible for scrutiny, educational materials, and processes; empowers your entire organization to feel fully prepared and ready when your survey comes along. The task can feel daunting, with Joint Commission, Department of Health, OSHA, and CMS standards constantly changing – but an uncertain environment is no reason to put off the standardization of your regulatory practices.
Investing in an expert team of Quality & Regulatory Management Advisors to provide an objective evaluation of your organization’s regulatory programs generates confidence in the time-consuming work and efforts your organization has completed and practiced. Here are four key benefits of investing in an expert Quality & Regulatory Management Advisor:
Preparation in the ever-evolving ecosystem that is healthcare accreditation entails much more than a one-time check list. Organizations must have a full understanding of compliance requirements across every department. By adopting a risk-based process, compliance programs can become a repeatable process across the entire organization, ensuring uniform compliance standards as well as efficiencies for staff and reportable metrics.
Changes and revisions to a compliance program are expected with the ever-changing regulatory landscape and as your organization grows or makes business changes. A scalable, risk-based program promotes a culture of continuous improvement, agility, and adaptability. By utilizing a Quality & Regulatory Advisor to provide advice and support in creating these processes or updating policies to align with the best practices and emerging trends, organizations can proactively monitor regulatory changes.
Achieving long-term continuous improvement requires an internal culture of collaboration, partnership, and curiosity. Continuous transformation is only sustainable when powered by value tracking, action plan building, management of multiple priorities, and experience of internal leadership. When your organization commits to Quality & Regulatory excellence it also improves long-term performance of providing high quality care to patients.
Consistent communication between leadership, practice experts, and patient-facing staff are key to your organization’s regulatory success. Your Quality & Regulatory Advisors will leverage their accreditation experience for your organization’s unique needs facilitating dialogue within the organization that allows for questions, multifaceted solutions, and understanding.
Efficient organization operations are often the direct result of high performing continuous improvement programs. By committing to regulatory compliance programs and practices, your organization improves in sustaining financial soundness. Accreditation demonstrates value to your community, staff, board, and legislators – improving your credibility with potential funders. Quality & Regulatory Advisors work directly with your health system to understand how regulatory compliance impacts operational costs and can advise on efficiencies that are complaint to save cost as well as how to plan for compliance for anticipated long-term growth.
Without investment in proactive regulatory compliance programs, accreditation preparedness can become stagnant and stressful for any health system. But when executed by an expert quality and regulatory partner, organizations can benefit from organization-wide engagement that will increase the effectiveness of your regulatory compliance program for years to come. When you work with TCC’s Quality & Regulatory Management Advisors you gain a true advocate and advisor committed to your health system. We work directly with your internal teams to evaluate and control risks improving work quality, care delivery, and reducing costs. We are well-versed in healthcare regulatory compliance, drawing from many years of working in the healthcare industry and regulatory bodies such as DOH, OSHA, DEP, AHJ, DNV, and Joint Commission (TJC). With our exceptional talent and flexible service options, TCC consistently creates superior value for our clients no matter the size, scope, or challenge.
Reach out to learn more about how TCC’s Quality & Regulatory Management Advisors can help you achieve accreditation success!
