The Jewish Home at Rockleigh recently underwent its annual inspection by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services’ survey team. This is an unannounced inspection that takes place annually and is carried out by a team of professionals which include nurses, dietitians, a pharmacist, and a building inspector. In our case, the team which came was one which has inspected us over the past three years. I am pleased to tell you that for the fourth time in four years we received no deficiencies in the nursing, recreational, social services, environmental services and rehabilitation departments. In fact the only deficiencies we received were two in the dietary department, and a third deficiency because of dust on a single sprinkler head in the laundry, behind the dryers. This is one of hundreds of such sprinkler heads throughout our building.
As the residents who attended the survey team’s exit can attest, the team members were complementary about the quality of care which they observed during their week here. During this time they met with our residents, family members, and of course, staff. For your information, the only industry which has more oversight and inspections in the USA, is the nuclear industry. A copy of this survey report is kept at the reception desk in a binder for the review of all. Our residents are reminded of its availability at every monthly Resident Council meeting. All deficiencies were corrected at the time of survey.
We were pleased to have this team return again as they had the insight to have seen the growth and development of the professional staff at the Jewish Home. Having opened this facility at a time of nursing shortages, we were very dependent on agency nurses for the first two years and today I am happy to say, we have had no agency staff on duty for months.
I am proud to work with the quality of professionals who are at the Jewish Home today. This is not to say that there is not a need to continuously look at what and how we are providing quality care, which we do through daily morning staff meetings and through the vehicle of a Quality Assurance Committee. We welcome the participation of family members on this committee which is interdisciplinary and also includes all of our outside vendors such as pharmacy, lab and x-ray, as well as members of our Board of Directors and Medical staff. The meetings are co-chaired by myself and Dr. Harvey Gross, our Medical Director. If you would like to get involved, please contact me directly as we would appreciate the participation of additional family members.