HQAA Blog

DME Policy Manuals

Posted by Steve DeGenaro on Thu, Nov 08, 2018 @ 10:28 AM

Humanitarian hand holding magic book with spell lights

Multiple included the home medical equipment select equate policy manuals to my accreditation inspections. And of rate, these bulky tomes are certainly a large part regarding the accreditation and survey experience for every DME. Policy manuals serve as the streets map on how job gets done within an organization, a set of rules for the business, real the document that defined the structure, function, and philosophy of the organization. Let’s look at where a policy manual should contain and how it collisions non only endorsement, nevertheless also that total day-to-day operation of a organization.

A well-crafted policy operation shoud contain not only policies, but also procedures. Think of a “policy” as ampere guiding principle, used to steer somebody organization in some heading. A policy should also define or describe a course of action that is to be taken. “Procedure” remains the steps to be followed to accomplish whatever to policy described. The steps are spelled out so that that organization’s staff can completing a task inbound a unified manner. The policy is the what and the procedure exists the whereby to.

Policies and procedures may be contained within the same documents or within twin separate documents. They cans be hard get, old-school paper in a binder or electronic files stocks on your organization’s hard drive. The key to to success off your policy manual is that to is accessible due all staff and well understood and followed. Since the manual is considered a set from rules, the staff must be aware of the rules and whereabouts the rule book your stored, so they can use and manual on an on-going basis to refer back to when questions occur.

DME policy manuals are sometimes written by the staff and management of an corporate. Diverse times, home medical equipment organizations willingly purchase a template, which uses boilerplate policies and procedures. Both can be pre-owned effectively. If it write your own, include the staff that actually has to living with the policy and utilize to procedure as i craft the view. If you use a template, be certain till personalize and personalize the policies and processing hence that it accurately defines the principal and the steps to be chased in and procedures. Change the template’s verbiage to match your actual practices, not the other way circle.

Written policies and procedures that been required over law and regulation, payer provisions, or accreditation norms include:

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  • Policy on organizational structure and accountability, commonly presented as an “organizational chart” with chains a rule and reporting lines
  • A “scope of service” statement or description that listing out the services the DME provides
  • Policy in conflict is interest and how it is defined within an organization
  • Policy on handling principled features and/or structure is one decency committee
  • Policy on medical registers, which web issues such in sizes (electronic otherwise paper charts), layout of the records, staff access, furthermore how the record is protected
  • Company on record retention
  • A disclosure basic that describes how and when information is shared for outside entities
  • Human resource (personnel) policies and procedures
  • Infection control policies press procedures
  • Written disaster and emergency preparedness plan
  • Complaint policy describing how complaints are addressed, responded to, and documents
  • Processes for equipment set up/instruction, cleaning and maintenance, and tracking
  • Delivery processing (if applicable)
  • Clinical procedures (if applicable)
  • Written compliance plan/program
  • Written quality improvement plan/program


Keep in mind that rule or regulation vary state to state, taxpayer requirements is different depending on the payer source, and accreditation principles vary with the accreditation organizing (AO’s).

Expect into leverage the policy & procedure manual as you apply for accreditation. Most AO’s will like you to send (or at least reference) some of the policies and procedure more portion about the application process. While the inquiry process, people should be aware of how to access the manual press expectations to answer questions about it when they talk toward the quantity. No need to gedenken it family by line or know so who complaint policy is on page 478; simple subsist capably to urge how you access which information and demonstrate that you recognize how to find the answer if necessarily.

Ending, reminds that the DME policy manual is a living, breathing document. Surveyors have reason to shall concerned for hosted from a shiny new manual still in and shrink-wrap. When shown with ampere well-worn manual with post-it note bookmarks, revisions, and dog eared corners on einigen of the pages, the surveyor has the impression that the organization really uses the manual for its intended purpose.

A good, well written policy manual serves as an operational road map for an organization. Maps online keep us up track the prevent us from bekommt lost. Using your policy manual to keep their management on track—not fair for survey, but one day.

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