Laws and Guidelines for JCAHO
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, which has changed it's name to the Joint Commission, is an independent licensing organization which provides accreditation to several types of health care providers. The commission currently provides accreditation to thousands of facilities within the United States and abroad. It's goal is to improve the quality of health care through ongoing standardizations and outcomes analyses.
Other People Are Reading
-
Accreditation Surveys
-
Facility accreditation is a core function of the Joint Commission. In addition to reviewing data provided by the facility, the Joint Commission conducts both announced, as well as unannounced, surveys of facilities. Accreditation by the Joint Commission means that a facility meets requirements for participation in Medicare, provides safe, effective care and meets high quality and value standards. Surveys are comprehensive in nature and review the physical plant, the supporting facilities and take into account laboratory and clinical services. Due to the depth and complexity, these surveys can be multi-day affairs.
Effective July of 2010, the Joint Commission accreditation program is now subject to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) review. CMS announced required criterion which the Joint Commission must incorporate into its standards for health care facilities.
Sentinel Events
-
A major aspect of Joint Commission patient care efforts is the report and analysis of sentinel events--events in which there has been an unexpected event involving death or serious harm. Events of this nature signal the need for investigation. To further this goal, the Joint Commission maintains an hotline for reporting purposes. In addition to sentinel events, the Joint Commission requires that patients be offered the opportunity to file complaints with which the facility must both acknowledge and follow up.
-
Standardization
-
The Joint Commission proclaims national standards through accreditation manuals for treatment and care in an effort to improve and standardize health care across the nation. The Joint Commission provides standards for a variety of operations from pain management to medical interpreters. By promoting uniform standards, the Joint Commission seeks to reduce variances in treatment based on geographic location and restrictions. Part of this effort includes practice guidelines, along with certification for specific treatments (such as Ventricular Assist Device Certification) to allow hospitals to better promote a given specialty, or expertise in a crowded market.
Staffing and Governance Standards
-
In addition to physical plant and treatment protocols, the Joint Commission works to assure that health care professional and support staff are properly licensed, possess clean backgrounds and reduce conflicts. The Joint Commission promotes standards governing the operation of hospitals, which also includes standards to address disruptive physician behavior by assuring that medical staff delineates duties clearly and that each clinical department produce its own discrete criteria for licensing at a given facility. Facility governance is also covered, which emphasizes communication between various layers of hospital management in order to share data and resolve patient care issues while improving risk management.
-
References
- Photo Credit Hospital sign image by Megan van Dyck from Fotolia.com
