Headed For Survey in 2021 Or 2022? Avoid The Top 10 Citations And Keep Your Eye On Success!

August 3, 2021
Top 10 CHAP survey deficiencies in 2020: 
The Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP) has compiled the top 10 list of deficiencies cited during surveys in 2020. These are the items listed in their reference material as the top 10 deficiencies and tips for compliance as of April 26, 2021:
  1. G440:  This includes the portion of patient's rights related to charges and payment for services prior to the next patient visit.  Tips: Does the document have all the required information listed? How is the patient notified with payer changes? How do you audit if the patients were informed? 
  2. G614:  Written instructions are provided to the patient including schedule of visits with the frequency of the visits.  Tips:   What is your process to provide this written information? Is it understandable to the patient? Consider supervisory visits that address this.
  3. G574:  This G tag references the required elements of the individualized plan of care.  Tips:  Review your plans of care to make sure all items are there. In addition, these plans of care need to be individualized to meet the needs of the patient based upon what is listed in the assessment. CHAP cited the most missed elements to be measurable goals, over-the-counter meds, interventions to be completed in the visit, and co-morbidity diagnosis.
  4. G1022:  This references the discharge and transfer summaries being sent to the appropriate practitioner within the allotted timeframes.  Tips:  What system is in place to make sure this is completed and timely within your agency? How is your agency informed of transfers and who is responsible to send the summaries?
  5. G710:  This is about your skilled clinicians/ disciplines following the plan of care.  Tips:  Are you performing audits to identify issues with compliance to the plan of care? You need to assess and address trends you find in auditing. In addition, make sure orders are obtained prior to changing your interventions.
  6. G682: This is hand hygiene as part of infection control.  Tips:  This is direct supervision of the task on home visits. 
  7. G536:  This is your comprehensive assessment including medication review.  Tips:  The issue here often lies with medications being added. It is also relevant for over-the-counter meds not being included. 
  8. G584: This G tag references verbal orders being taken by those authorized and authenticated on time.  Tips:  This has to be addressed as part of auditing to make sure it is done properly and timely. 
  9. G684: This references infection control programs as part of your QAPI program. It also includes TB screening per regulation/ CDC guidelines.  Tips:  Make sure your agency policy and procedures are up-to-date with current CDC guidelines/regulation in reference to TB screening. There should be a tracking system and audits to make sure you are following guidelines when testing is required so you do not miss timeframes.   
  10. G592:  This G tag references care plan revisions that include measurable and patient specific goals, patient progression toward goals, and updated information.  Tips:  Again, the key here is auditing. Is your comprehensive assessment getting updated with a plan of care that matches it?

Kenyon Homecare Consulting Can Help:
At Kenyon Homecare Consulting , we focus on helping agencies provide high-quality, cost-effective care with results that matter for patients. Call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online to see if we can help you prepare for survey and make sure operations have you prepped for success. 
 

Results Based Consulting

Did you find value in this blog post? Imagine what we can do for your home care or hospice agency. Fill out the form below to see how we're leading the industry with innovation, affordability, and experience.

Contact Us

compliance
August 28, 2025
Managing compliance in the home care, home health, and hospice world is a challenge. Let's look at what it takes. It is necessary to be methodical and intentional.
Health are crisis
August 20, 2025
Significant reductions is federal Medicaid funding has a huge impact to our nation's healthcare system to the tune of $911 billion over 10 years.
patient centered care
August 11, 2025
Somewhere in the mix of trying to improve patient care, the patients can get lost. The drive to to move to true patient centered care.
Solutions or quality care
August 2, 2025
Quality of care issues present a range of challenges related to providing effective and safe care in a patient's home.
Infection ontrol
July 26, 2025
Infection Control breaches remain a problem in the home care industry. These are preventable errors for your surveys and in everyday practice.
retention
July 17, 2025
Recruiting home care staff is challenging and costly, losing and replacing staff is worse. You also must consider lost opportunity costs.
Home care nurse
July 12, 2025
One of the biggest challenges for home care and home health is the recruitment of staff to provide care. The high cost remains an issue for recruitment strategies.
#recruitment #retention
July 3, 2025
There has been a growing issue with the supply of nurses and home care aides. This is particularly true for home care agencies. With the increased competition from hospitals, skilled nursing homes, Medicare home health and hospices for these workers, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit and hire.
January 10, 2025
HOPE Question and Answer Repository
June 9, 2023
Today, this article will look at little different than out typical articles. We all know the costs of losing employees and trying to hire and train new ones. It is exhausting and expensive. So, we think about our wages and benefit packages all the time. What can we do differently that makes people stay? We can’t change the job and we don’t want to keep people that don’t like the work itself. So, how do we acknowledge employees in a way that is valuable to them and that our businesses can afford to do? 5 Things To Consider About Employee Recognition At Your Christmas Party: 1. Years of Service: These can be based on milestone work anniversaries (5, 10, 15 yrs, etc.). If a person has been at your agency 11 years, you pull them up and acknowledge them in the group of employees who have been there at least 10 years up until the time they hit the 15 years landmark. This way longevity is recognized yearly. 2. Special Employee awards: Now, this may be difficult if your staff is very small, but acknowledge the employee who has gone the extra mile in the job they do. Tell the story. The employee needs to know when the employer is proud of the work that has been done. Consider a plaque or certificate. Don’t minimize the value of the employee having them to display. 3. Acknowledge all employees in the mix: Because we are a clinical industry, the administrative staff is often overlooked on day-to-day operations. Ultimately, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the employee who was able to catch billing errors or collect on a large account. Staff doesn’t like to hear about money, but those types of collections keep Christmas bonuses in place! So, make sure the other staff knows the accomplishments of the finance department or the office manager that every caller loves to speak to. Don't ever forget the IT staff that is on call more than any clinical person in your agency! 4. Letters from the administration: Add a personal note to your staff either collectively or individually depending on the size of your agency. If you are larger, there are employees you don’t often see or get to talk to on a regular basis, so take the time so send a note with that Christmas bonus. 5. Consider the Christmas bonus: Listen, some of you can afford to do substantial monetary bonuses and that is fantastic. However, if you are not in that position, consider something in its place. Maybe small gas cards go with the letter from administration. With the cost of groceries, consider something that helps with the costs of daily living for employees. Big box gift cards in your area will always be used. You may do a lot of these things on a yearly basis to employees. All this being said, it doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons for acknowledgement throughout the year. However, your annual Christmas party is a good way to do it collectively. Between your annual party, write the individual cards to employees when you hear a patient interaction worthy of praise. Or, maybe you buy a gas card for the employee who has picked up extra shifts and always shows up on time. Ultimately, employees will feel valued. You will not regret the time, effort, and energy put into these efforts. Merry Christmas! If you want help with recruitment and retention strategies for your agency, please call Kenyon Homecare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today.