CMS and Joint Commission change hospital eligibility requirements

Both organizations have changed their expectations on the defintion of a hospital. CMS’s new S&C Memo 17-44-Hospitals says that surveyors will use average daily census (ADC) and average length of stay (ALOS) data to determine if the hospital is primarily engaged in providing services to inpatients, and “a hospital must have inpatients at the time of survey in order for surveyors to directly observe the actual provision of care and services to patients, and the effects of that care” to determine if the facility is meeting the Conditions of Participation (CoP) in Medicare.

In addition, both CMS and The Joint Commission say that hospitals will need at least two active inpatients on site for an accreditation survey to be done. This change is effective immediately.