How to Raise Your Audit Scores and Lower Your Policy Management Frustrations

We’re kicking October off with a piece that examines how you can harness cloud computing and automated workflows to break free of the limitations of outdated systems that set good people and facilities up for failure, instead of improving audit performance and delivering exceptional care.

 Step 1: Get ahead of expired policy documents

From delayed or denied accreditation to the potential for unsafe conditions, expiration deficiencies can wreak havoc throughout your facility.

With increased staff workloads that come with lean processes, policies that could be stored in binders found in multiple locations, and expiration dates that are manually tracked, it’s all too easy to miss something.

Thanks to PolicyStat’s platform, it’s now simple and affordable to make audit stress and compliance inefficiencies disappear.

For example, instead of having to remember to track (and update) policy expirations with a spreadsheet, PolicyStat’s software prominently flags them for you.

Not only that, but the platform pushes automatic notifications for approvers and automatically generates “read and understood” email reminders to designated staff members.

So instead of expired policies, survey deficiencies, and uncomfortable post-audit “how did that happen” sessions, PolicyStat’s digital policy management helps you fairly and appropriately distribute compliance responsibility while reducing stress for everyone involved in the process.

Step 2: Eliminate policy version confusion

One of the most time-consuming and tedious aspects of keeping policies updated is the need to download policy documents and email them to others for input and approval.

Tracking version numbers and document dates, responding to and reconciling comments in Word documents, and following up with collaborators creates a situation where people spend more time verifying versions than actually creating or improving the documents themselves.

Managing documents this way is a recipe for confusion and compliance-related problems, and it’s completely unnecessary.

PolicyStat’s user-friendly editor with author collaboration features streamlines the process flow and automatically updates the document so you always know you’re working with the latest version.

What’s more, the interface features a visual graph that displays who is next in line to approve.

Instead of missed deadlines and confusion, the platform lets you efficiently create accurate, consistent, and professionally-formated documents with task clarity and accountability added into the workflow.

Step 3: Stop flailing (and failing)

In times of increased reimbursement and compliance scrutiny, not to mention competition from large and small health systems, being able to produce relevant, current documents on demand is an operational and strategic imperative.

Since surveyors don’t announce their visits in advance, you have to be on point at all times.

Therefore, we tell all of our clients that creating easy document access is the best compliance strategy. In an inspection, search delays due to a poorly-organized or obsolete policy library can create the appearance of lax management.

PolicyStat’s platform lets you add keyword tags and group policies by audit category or standards reference. This means anyone with permission can locate all survey-required documents in a single search and avoid wasting precious time.

Implementing a system that allows anyone at any time to find the most recent, updated policy in seconds is an excellent way to demonstrate to surveyors that your facility is serious about policy and procedure compliance.

And as important as the actual audit scores are to your facility’s reputation and revenue, being prepared for audits can offer even more significant benefits:

Our clients report that replacing stress and uncertainty with calmness and confidence helps them focus on delivering exceptional patient care that leads to more positive outcomes.

We’ll make this easy

If you have two minutes, watch our demo to learn how you can automatically begin shifting thousands of hours you’re spending on policy and procedure management into focusing more time on delivering outstanding patient care.

You can also contact us to set up a live demo and learn why we have a 99 percent client retention rate and a 99.8 percent customer support satisfaction score.