On Monday morning, January 11, a surveyor from CHAP, Community Health Accreditation Partner, arrived ‘un-announced’ at RVNAhealth to conduct our home health re-accreditation audit, which occurs every three years. While the accreditation is expected to occur during a particular window of time, the exact date is unknown to the agency before the arrival of the surveyor on one’s doorstep. While a Monday morning in January would never be considered an ‘optimal’ time to begin an audit, January 11 was also the launch day of the RVNAhealth COVID-19 Vaccine program, making it a very busy day at the office.  

A CHAP audit is an intense scrutiny of a home health agency’s operation, with strict attention and review of records, protocols, documents, policies, procedures and, of course, patient care. The intent of the review is to examine an agency’s quality of care and business processes and to identify opportunities for refinement and growth. Receiving CHAP Accreditation is a gold seal of approval. It tells patients and their families that an agency cares about high quality and compliance standards in the care they deliver.

During the week of January 11th, our CHAP surveyor accompanied our field team on several observational home care visits, and studied — and scrutinized — records, protocols, and processes. The result? A most favorable outcome and a confirmed re-accreditation. With flying colors.

The CHAP surveyor was very pleased and impressed with the findings. Of particular note were two parting comments made to Theresa Santoro, RVNAhealth President & CEO: “The home care visits were exceptional. The [RVNAhealth] staff were knowledgeable, skilled, and caring, but best of all, they seemed so happy to be doing their work. What a happy place this is.” And, second, “This has been a most impressive survey visit. I could work here.” 

RVNAhealth is extremely proud of this CHAP report, of our exceptional team, and of the work that we do and the way in which we do it.