What Community Care Licensing Division is Looking for in an Inspection: COVID-19 Edition

Aug 6, 2021 | COVID-19, Industry

Taken from May 25th’s Tuesdays with Tom video. Edited for length and clarity.

What is Licensing looking for when they come to do an inspection?

First thing is, be sure you’re ready, and you have time to get ready now and get your staff ready. At this present time, they’re really focused on [regulations related to] COVID-19.

Hand Hygiene

When an LPA (Licensing Program Analyst) walks in the door, make sure [your staff] are cleaning their hands. If you just have the sanitizer, that’s fine. It’s nice if you have a place, though, that they can go to a sink and wash their hands and have paper towels.

Be sure your water temperature is in line. It can’t be more than 120°F and needs to be above 105°F.

Masks

Be sure you have masks available for face coverings, so they (Licensing) can put that on before they even start the inspection. Until Licensing says otherwise, be sure your staff is also wearing masks at all times.

Signage

You must have signs all around for the COVID symptoms. Licensing has those on their website if you need to print them off. Signage reminding everyone of social distancing, the six-feet distance, is also incredibly important.

COVID Binder and Mitigation Plan

When Licensing is in your facility, have your COVID binder (we sell them!), your training for COVID, and your mitigation plan available. Everybody should have a mitigation plan. What we’re seeing is Licensing sending out letters to the facilities informing them that they’re going to be coming out, and they want to make sure you both know what’s in your mitigation plan and that you’re ready to follow it.

PPE and Isolation

Have an area that says, “Isolation.” Licensing needs to see that you have a designated room for isolation if needed. The other thing they are checking on is that you have a PPE storage area. If you have a big facility, it’ll probably be a closet. For a small facility, maybe a cupboard.

Have your gloves, your face masks, sanitizer, extra toilet paper (ha ha), everything you need for PPE. If it’s [for] isolation, you should probably have booties, face shields (alongside face masks).

Screening

When Licensing walks into your facility, be sure and have your screening area  set up. Some of you will have a form that the LPA needs to fill out, but it might be better if one of the employees does it for them and asks them the questions. The employee also needs to take the LPA’s temperature. If they don’t have a face mask, give them one and be sure that they put it on [properly]!

Ask the questions one would for normal screenings, such as:

  • Do you have any signs and symptoms of COVID-19?
  • Are you familiar with physical distancing?
  • Have you been in close contact with somebody?
  • Have you engaged in any high-risk activities?

Everything that is on your screening sheet must be gone over with the visiting LPA. You can have them or an employee fill it out. Let the LPA know you’re serious about all of these [measures] put in place to make sure that the spread of COVID-19 is reduced as much as possible.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that the LPAs are going to start coming out. So just be sure you’re ready and, above all, be sure your water temperature is right.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels

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