What is a Health Facility Surveyor?

I have been a registered nurse since 1969 and working in Alaska has provided me with many diverse and unique experiences. I wanted to share some of those experiences. One of them was as a Health Facility Surveyor. I started working as a Health Facility Surveyor for the State of Alaska in October of 1988.

People often ask what kind of a surveyor?? They immediately think of a road surveyor. All states have such people who from time to time cause health provider types to shake and quiver. In what we call the "lower 48" Health Facility Surveyors specialize in specific provider types. For example, a surveyor may be trained to conduct only Long Term Care surveys of nursing homes. The Federal Health Care Financing folks train surveyors to conduct different types of provider surveys. Then the federal government contracts with the specific state for the services of its Health Care Surveyors. I worked as a Health Facility Surveyor until January 2003.

Alaskans are always different. We performed all surveys for the entire state including hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, physical therapists, critical access hospitals, rural health clinics and developmentally disabled facilities. That is a mouthful. To be sure you do not get to Barrow, Alaska by automobile. During the time I was a surveyor I traveled the entire State of Alaska and had some very interesting experiences.

Come back for more surveyor stories. To be continued.