Happy New Year and welcome to the first “Ftag of the Week” of 2018. This week we’ll look at F835 Administration, which was previously Ftag 490 with the same description. While the content of the tag is straight-forward – “A facility must be administered in a manner that enables it to use its resources effectively and efficiently to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident” – it’s the details in the Interpretive Guidance (IG) that are worth reviewing. We often see Administration being cited with the same information cited under other Ftags identified on survey, particularly when a deficient practice rises to the level of Immediate Jeopardy, but the IG requires more.
The procedures for citing F835 Administration state that surveyors must conduct an investigation that demonstrates how the Administration knew/should have known that there was a deficient practice, as well as how lack of Administration contributed to the issue. Surveyors may no longer “reiterate the non-compliance from any other associated tags” and then refer to F835. The documentation must include findings from the investigation that demonstrate Administration’s knowledge or lack of knowledge and action to address the deficient practice in the facility. This means that going forward it will be interesting to see how Administration is – or isn’t – cited on survey under the new LTCSP.
