August 2025 Newsletter

In the News This Month

Greetings Everyone,

We are incredibly pleased to welcome Teri Reinhartsen, Associate Consultant, to C&A. She is a terrific addition to the team, bringing with her a depth of knowledge, expertise, and experience. Please learn more about Teri below.

This month we have two must read articles. First, "Survey Readiness: Strategies for Ongoing Preparedness," written by Denise Smith, Head of Consulting & Senior Consultant. This piece provides a comprehensive outline of strategies to assist your team with continuous preparation for regulatory compliance enhancing patient safety and quality of care.

In addition, our second article, "Understanding Emtala Compliance Part 1" composed by Teri Reinhartsen, Associate Consultant, presents an in-depth look at the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) outlining core requirements for compliance to assure quality and equitable patient care.

Thank you for taking the time to read our articles. We hope this information is helpful in assisting you with accreditation and regulatory compliance needs. For future topics or require our services, please reach out to us at info@courtemanche-assocs.com. Our team is always available and eager to assist you in any way we can.

Hospital survey readiness word collage.

Jul 29 2025

Survey Readiness – Strategies for Continuous Preparedness
Survey readiness, refers to a healthcare organization's ongoing state of preparedness for an accreditation survey. It means being consistently compliant with accrediting organization's standards-not just scrambling to prepare when a survey is imminent.  Being prepared will reduce the stress of the survey and reduce the number of citations/findings the ...
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The Author

Denise Smith, RN, BS, MS, CLNC, HACP-CMS

Denise Smith is Head of Consulting & a Senior Consultant with Courtemanche & Associates. In this role she is responsible for assessing healthcare organizational readiness for licensing, certification, accreditation, and regulatory compliance. She has extensive knowledge in the requirements of The Joint Commission, DNV, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services including knowledge in their survey process, auditing approach and survey outcome determination. She also has knowledge and experience in AAAHC and other regulatory and accreditation organizations. She assists organizations with survey preparation, educational needs, post survey activities, patient safety strategies and quality improvement initiatives. Denise has more than 40 years of experience and expertise in Infection Prevention, Sterile Processing, Legal Nurse Consulting, Quality and Resource Management, Clinical Education, in acute inpatient and outpatient care settings.

Denise Smith, Head of Consulting and Senior Consultant
Patient being brought into the emergency room on a stretcher.

Jul 29 2025

Understanding EMTALA Compliance Part 1
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted in 1986 in response to increasing concerns about hospitals refusing care to poor or uninsured patients, a practice known as "patient dumping." Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) ...
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The Author

Teri Reinhartsen, RN, MS, CPHRM

Teri Reinhartsen is an Associate Consultant with Courtemanche and Associates with 30 years of clinical and leadership experience working in varying healthcare positions from the bedside to the Boardroom. In this role, she is responsible for assessing healthcare organizations’ readiness for licensing, accreditation, and regulatory compliance, and is trained in the survey process, auditing approach and survey outcome determination utilized by The Joint Commission, DNV, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and other regulatory agencies and accrediting organizations. She assists organizations with post-survey activitieseducation, patient safety strategies, and quality improvement initiatives and has experience in various health care settings including acute care, behavioral health, and ambulatory care settings. Throughout her career, Teri has held a variety of Patient Safety, Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance leadership positions for several large healthcare systems. These experiences provided her with a wealth of knowledge in these areas as well as Root Cause Analysis and High Reliability Concepts. Teri has been the lead on mock surveys where she has worked and conducted educational programs related to her areas of expertise. She has also participated in and assisted in DOH/CMS investigations.  Clinically, Teri has expertise in the Peri Operative area.

Teri Reinhartsen, Associate Consultant with Courtemanche & Associates
Tri logos Sayas Alliance parent company and sub division companies.

C&A is a division of SAYAS Alliance. Through our sister company Medical Resources Network, we also offer a range of legal nurse consulting services, including medical record review and analysis, medical chronologies, peer review, retention of medical experts, and adverse event and call center management. Learn more.

Disclaimer: The information on this website is published in good faith for general information purposes only. This website does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information.

The Joint Commission® is a registered trademark of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Courtemanche & Associates has no affiliation with this entity.

Courtemanche & Associates | (704)-573-4535 | Email: info@courtemanche-assocs.com

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