ASPEN SURVEY EXPLORER
TRAINING GUIDE
FOR NH CERTIFICATION ENTRY
This guide is designed to take you step-by-step through the certification process. During this process, you will use ASPEN Survey Explorer for the certification process from the point of entering a survey until you have completed the survey.
This manual is separated into various sections to walk you through the process beginning with Logging into the System. There will often be several ways to access menu items. (e.g., right-click on a name or select from the tool bar menu) To make this guide more user friendly, we documented only one way to perform each of these tasks.
This program involves several steps. If you start at the beginning of this document and follow the instructions step by step, you will have a good understanding of the program when you are finished. In addition, we have included many screen prints to help in understanding this program.
Alternative methods of access and detailed information about ASE functions are included in the ASPEN Survey Explorer Reference Guide. This training guide includes some cross-references to the ASE Reference Guide, which appear as follows:
Chapter 2: Facilities, “Facility Definition”
This cross-reference directs you to Chapter 2 entitled Facilities and specifically to the section entitled “Facility Definition” in the ASE Reference Guide.
Table of Contents
Logging into ASPEN Survey Explorer 1-1
Entering a New Facility 2-1
Importing a Survey 3-1
Entering a New Survey Event 4-1
Entering Survey Findings 5-1
Forms 6-1
Printing Forms 7-1
Exporting a Survey 8-1
Quick References 9-1
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Logging Into ASPEN Survey Explorer
After you have the ASPEN Survey Explorer program installed on your computer or the network in your office, double-click the ASPEN Survey Explorer icon on your desktop.
The first thing Survey Explorer requires is a login name (see below). If you have used this program before your name will appear alphabetically in the list. This list can be manipulated by pressing the up ( ) and down ( ) keys on your keyboard or the Page Up and Page Down keys.
1) Highlight your name and select the OK button.
Chapter 1: Getting Started, “Starting and Exiting ASPEN Survey Explorer”
In the event that your name does not appear on the list, you must enter your personal information into the system so that your name will appear in the list of surveyors.
2) Select the New button at the bottom of the Welcome to ASPEN screen. The Enter New Staff Information window will appear (see below).
Chapter 4: Survey Teams and Survey Transfer, “Adding Surveyors”
3) Enter your Federal Surveyor ID assigned by your HCFA Regional Office contact. If you know your State Personnel ID, you may enter it. Enter your first name, middle initial, and last name. For the Title Code, the program has a drop down box as indicated by the down arrow next to the Title Code field. When you click the down arrow, a number of disciplines will appear. Select the proper discipline code. Enter your email address if desired. In the Login Detail section, fill in the Network Login, Oracle Login, and Oracle Password. If you are unsure of your network login, Oracle login and Oracle password, contact your State ASPEN Coordinator. Select the OK button to save your information and close the window. The Welcome to ASPEN:Please Select Active Surveyor window will appear with your name in the list of surveyors. Highlight your name and select OK.
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Entering a New Facility
Before you can actually go out and perform a survey, the facility information must exist in the ASPEN Survey Explorer program. MDS and OASIS facilities should be entered through ASPEN Central Office (ACO) or ASPEN Regional Office (ARO). Those systems generate a Login ID and Password for the facility to use to submit assessment data.
1) Before adding a new facility check to make sure the facility does not already exist in the database. To do this, select the Find button (see screen below).
Chapter 1: Getting Started, "Finding Facilities and Surveys"
2) The following Find screen appears. Enter the Medicare ID for the provider in the Text section. Make sure the radio button next to the Medicare ID field is filled in and select Find Now.
3) Since the facility is not in the database the following message is displayed.
4) Select OK.
5) Select the Facility icon on the main toolbar. See screen print example below.
6) The following Define New Facility window appears:
Chapter 2: Facilities, “Facility Definition”
7) Fill out the as much information as you have. State Facility (ID), (Facility) Type, Name, City, and State are required fields.
8) To enter an additional address for the facility, select the Mailing Address tab and enter the information. (See screen print)
Chapter 2: Facilities, “Mailing Address”
9) Select the Buildings/Wings tab. (See screen print)
Chapter 2: Facilities, “Buildings/Wings”
10) To enter building or wing information, select the New button. The following confirmation message appears. This is a warning message stating new buildings will not automatically be transferred to ACO. Contact your supervisor to make sure the building is also added in ACO.
11) Select Yes on the confirmation message. The Define New Building screen below appears. Fill in the appropriate information. The required fields are displayed in yellow.
12) Select OK on the Define New Building screen after you are done entering the building information. You are returned to the Buildings/Wings tab on the facility window. ASPEN was coded to display buildings/wings in different colors on the Buildings/Wings tab. White means the building/wing is open with no effective date. Blue means the building/wing is open and has an effective date. Grey means the building/wing is closed. Green means the building/wing is a state licensure only building/wing. Below is an example of how these are displayed on the Buildings/Wings tab.
13) Select OK when you are finished entering the facility information. The facility will be displayed under the appropriate alpha character in the tree view. (See screen print)
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Importing a Survey
MDS and OASIS facilities must be entered through ASPEN Central Office (ACO) or ASPEN Regional Office (ARO). Those systems generate a Login ID and Password for the facility to use to submit assessment data. Survey team members will often create a survey shell in ACO and import the shell into ASE to enter findings.
To import a survey shell and record your findings:
1) Using ASE, import the survey shell that was created in ACO. To do this, insert the diskette containing the survey shell into your A: drive and select the Import icon on the main ASE toolbar (see screen print below).
2) The following Import screen appears.
Chapter 4: Survey Teams and Survey Transfer, “Importing Surveys and Facilities“
3) Select OK. The following screen appears.
4) Highlight the survey(s) you want to import if they are not already highlighted and select OK. The survey(s) are imported into ASE. The following screen appears.
5) From the Alpha tab, select the plus sign next to the name of your facility. An open survey is displayed under the facility. At this point you can start writing up any deficiencies that you have found on for that survey.
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Entering a New Survey Event
To perform a survey on your facility, you must first select the facility from the main menu.
1) Select the plus sign next to the alpha character(s) that start the name of your facility in the tree view. All facilities starting with that alpha character(s) are displayed. Select the plus sign next to your facility. The tree view expands to show all surveys for this facility. Below is a sample of this tree view expanded.
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2) At this point you want to enter a new survey for your facility. To do this, right click on the name of the facility. A pop-up menu will appear. Select New Survey. The Define Survey window appears. Below is a sample of the Define Survey window.
Chapter 3: Surveys and Citations, “Creating Surveys”
3) The Start date is the day the survey team enters the facility. The Exit date is the day the survey team leaves the facility.
[TIP: To enter today’s date in any date field, you can hold down the Ctrl key and select the down arrow box.]
4) The next item is Status. The choices are 1 Open or 2 Closed. The system is defaulted to show 1 Open.
5) The Facility Details icon shows the facility information. You cannot change any facility information from this screen.
6) In the Type section, you will see Health and LSC (Life Safety Code) options. Health is defaulted and is the appropriate choice for Home Health Agencies.
7) The Regulation(s) section identifies only the pertinent regulation type associated with the facility as you describe it. Only Home Health regulations show up for home health agencies. Life Safety Code regulations and Long Term Care regulations show up for nursing home facilities. Select the box beside Long Term Care Facilities regulations.
8) The Team Roster section displays the staff assigned to this survey. When you select the Update button, a list of all surveyors currently in the system is displayed. Check the box beside an individual’s name to add that person to the team roster (see below).
Chapter 4: Survey Teams and Survey Transfer, “Adding Survey Team Members”
9) You can also select the New button to add a new surveyor or select the Modify button to modify an existing surveyor. Select the OK button. You are returned to the Define Survey window.
10) In the Survey Categories section, select a category.
Appendix B: Survey Types for definitions of all survey categories.
11) Select the box beside Initial Certification in the Survey Categories section.
12) The following are the options for Extent: Routine/Std Survey, Extended Survey LTC/HH, Partial Ext. Survey, and Other Survey. In the Extent(s) section, the default is Routine/Std Survey. This is appropriate.
13) Select the OK button. The message box shown below will appear.
14) You can select Yes and proceed to the Citation Manager window or select No and return to the main ASE window. For now, select No. The new survey is displayed in the Tree view.
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Entering Survey Findings (Deficiencies)
At this point in the survey process you have created a survey event. The next step is to record your findings.
Citing Deficiencies
1) Right-click on the survey you created or imported. The pop-up menu shown below appears.
2) From this menu, select Citation Manager to start documenting any deficiencies you have found. See example below of the Citation Manager window. Note that the name of the facility appears on the top bar of the window. A listing of the regulations appears on the right side in the Regulations section. The Team Roster appears in the lower left portion in the Team Roster section.
Chapter 3: Surveys and Citations, “Entering Citations”
3) There are hundreds of tags listed. In order to find a specific tag that properly matches the specific findings, you can use the Find button in the lower left corner of the Citation Manager window to search citation text, interpretive guidelines and regulations.
Chapter 3: Surveys and Citations, “Searching Citation Text, Interpretive Guidelines, and Regulations “
4) To use Tag ‘0154’, select tag ‘0154’ and drag and drop it in the Citations section. Once the tag is dropped in the Citations box, the Citation Properties window below will appear. If you are entering a LSC citation, you must select the building the tag is being cited against in the Buildings field.
5) Add the Severity/Scope of the tag by select the Grid icon. The following screen appears.
6) Select the letter of the severity you want to cite. You are returned to the Citation Properties screen.
7) The POC Detail section contains Plan of Correction (POC) dates. The POC is used to track whether or not the facility has corrected the problem that was noted in the survey process.
8) Select OK. The Citation window opens where you can enter in the findings pertaining to this citation tag (see below).
9) You may enter your findings on this window. Note there are two icons at the bottom left of this window (REG and IG). The REG icon will open a window that shows the current regulation text on which you are working. The IG icon displays the Interpretative Guidelines for the regulation on which you are working. Below is an example of the Citation window with the REG and IG icons displayed. The REG and IG are set as toggle switches so that you can open and close them as you wish by selecting either the REG or IG icon.