CMS Publishes New Emergency Preparedness Interpretive Guidelines
This originally appeared in Accreditation & Quality Advisor on June 5, 2017.
By Brian Ward
On June 2, CMS published its final rule for emergency preparedness guidelines and survey procedures. These rules affect all 17 providers and suppliers and the rules will be enforced starting November 15, 2017.
While the survey process will remain the same, the new rule creates compliance tags for emergency preparedness requirements. These tags will be similar to how K-tags are used to cite noncompliance with the Life Safety Code® (LSC).
The emergency preparedness tags will be called “E Tags” and are accessible to both health and safety surveyors and LSC surveyors. State survey agencies will have the discretion to decide which surveyor group will conduct the emergency preparedness surveys.
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