SC Survey and Certification

Search Criteria Definitions:

• Health: The portion of an Initial or Recertification survey that focuses on requirements for each resident to attain or maintain his or her highest practicable level of physical, mental and psychosocial well-being and mandates for promoting quality of life and quality of care.
• Life Safety Code: The portion of an Initial or Recertification survey that focuses on fire protection requirements written by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) designed to establish minimum requirements that will provide a reasonable degree of safety from fire, smoke and panic. These requirements cover construction, exiting, protection from hazards, and requirements for operational features. The requirements are designed to provide an appropriate level of safety for individuals in health care facilities.
• The CCN (CMS Certification Number) is a unique identifying number that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assigns to participating providers.
• A Complaint is a survey to investigate allegations and reported incidents to protect Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries from abuse, neglect, exploitation, inadequate care or supervision.
• An Initial is a survey for initial Medicare/Medicaid certification survey of Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) or Nursing Facilities (NFs) in order to participate in the Medicare/Medicaid programs.
• The MDS (Minimum Data Set) is part of the U.S. federally mandated process for clinical assessment of all residents in Medicare or Medicaid certified nursing homes. This process provides a comprehensive assessment of each resident's functional capabilities and helps nursing home staff identify health problems.
• A Recertification is the annual Recertification survey to determine ongoing compliance with minimum health and life safety standards that must be met by providers and suppliers participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. There are two components of recertifications Life Safety Code and Health.
• A Recertification/Complaint is when the annual Recertification survey and one or more Complaint surveys are conducted at the same time.
• A Revisit is a survey intended to verify correction of deficiencies cited in a prior survey. (Not all surveys will have onsite revisits.)