They came. They saw. They accredited!

I had the distinct pleasure (note sarcasm) of having the Joint Commission come to our facility.

For months now our quality person in charge of compliance would check their website to see if we were on their hit list. Every day I would get the email around 7:30 "No survey today". To my utter surprise this past Tuesday the email was different. "Alert! Survey Today!"

I stared at it in disbelief. I was at home, half dressed, with my boys in different states of dressedness. I called the unit. All the lines were busy. We have four lines. Bad omen. I next called the staffing office.

"Is it true?"

"Yes. Some woman I have never seen before came in here, threw some papers at me and said JACHO is coming. I am sending the pages now."

Needless to say, I uttered an explicative.

I hurriedly finished getting ready while nagging the boys to do the same. Pages and emails start coming through my blackberry. In my stressed out state, I don't answer any of them.

As I am driving my boys to their summer camp, I get a call from my boss.

"Hey."

"I know. I have to drop off the boys and then I'll be right in."

"Okay."

Literally that was the whole conversation. He said only two words.

When I finally got there, it was barely passed 8 o'clock. My charge nurse had everything under control and is truly worth her weight in gold (She is not a small girl either).

We were only visited twice by the administer surveyor. I am shocked we did not get the nurse or the physician surveyors. The two RN's and respiratory therapist he talked to did a fantabulous job. They answered every question expertly. I couldn't be more proud.

They were here for four days visiting the main hospital, our satellite campus, home health, hospice and DME. We passed with full accreditation. We took some hits as we knew we would (unapproved abbreviations, med rec, pain management). None of them found in my units!

I survived my first survey as a nurse manager. I wonder if I will still be here in three years to survive another. Monday I was ready to quit. Tuesday, Joint Commission showed and I haven't thought about it since. Now I am just elated it is over.