Sample Site Visit Schedule

Tips for creating your own Tentative Schedule.

Timing and scheduling

• Consider the arrival and departure time of your particular Site Visit Team.
• Consider religious holidays of interviewees when scheduling interviews.
• Depending on travel arrangements, site visitors may leave on the evening of the second day or choose to conduct the Exit Conference early the following morning before departing.
• The site visit team will work until the site visit is complete, including late in the evening. The site visit may take more or less time than anticipated, and schedules should be flexible to accommodate this.
• The site visitors will need to work through lunches.  Please arrange to bring food in so that they do not have to stop to go out for lunch.

Preparation for a smooth process

• Have all documents in the Document Checklist (found in the Accreditation manual) in the same order as the standards to which they apply, in one room for the Site Visitors to review.
• Have someone ready to pull the requested records while Site Visitors tour the birth center.

Interview considerations

• If your birth center employs birth assistants, be sure to include one interview with a birth assistant in the schedule.
• The hospital administrator interviewed may be an RN as long as this person functions in an administrative capacity. The administrator should be someone who is in a position to know:
  • The ease, technical outcomes, and quality of transfers to the hospital
  • The frequency, content, and quality of communication between the birth center and hospital
  • The overall quality of the relationship between the birth center and hospital
• Interviews may be conducted by phone or in person, at the convenience of the person being interviewed.
• In order to maximize the site visitors’ time, please limit the number of interviews to those that are essential. If you are uncertain whom to schedule for interviews, check with the CABC office prior to your site visit.

SAMPLE: Tentative Site Visit Schedule

FIRST DAY: (Friday when the Site Visit Team arrives)

3:00 - 4:30 PM	Birth Center representative greets Site Visitors at airport. Take them to their lodging to check in. Take them to the birth center to begin the site visit.
4:30 - 5:00 PM	Arrive at Birth Center – (after check in at hotel). Request delivery log to pick out chart review. Charts are pulled while Site Visitors are touring center.
5:00 – 6:00 PM	Tour of Birth Center
6:00 – 9:00 PM	Working supper in birth center. Interview anyone not available on Saturday or begin chart reviews.

SECOND DAY: (Saturday)

8:00 – 11:00 AM	Interviews (15 minutes each interview): - Birth center administrative director - Birth center financial advisor - Consulting obstetrician or pediatrician - One birth assistant - Administrator of the back-up hospital
11:00 – 5:30 PM	Working lunch. Finish chart reviews and review documents. Request and review additional charts as needed. Site visitors continue to review documents, clinical records, and supplementary materials. Physical check of birth center for deficiencies.
5:30 – 6:00 PM	Finish up with review.
6:00 – 7:00 PM	Supper.
7:00 – 8:00 PM	Prepare for Exit Conference.
8:00 – 9:00 PM	Exit Conference.

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