Health Care: The Joint Commission

In 1918, the ACS began implementing their Hospital Standardization Program to inspect hospitals and enforce minimum standards. The initial inspection results were troubling, of 692 hospitals assessed, only 89 met the minimum standards (Chassin & O'Kane). Over the years, the program began to show significant improvement in the quality of care. By 1950, the Hospital Standardization Program accredited over 3,200 facilities across the country. Today, accreditation promotes a continuous cycle of quality improvement, rather than sustaining minimal levels of performance

As shown, communication is a critical to hospital’s patient safety. The Joint Commission is a regulatory agency that makes hospital think about

The Joint Commission is scheduled to visit Nightingale Community Hospital for its triennial accreditation survey within the next 13 months. The purpose of this document is to provide senior leadership with an outline of the hospital’s current compliance status in the Priority Focus Area of Communication. Recommendations for corrective action are included in this document which are designed to bring the organization into full compliance in the areas where deficits have been identified.

"To continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value” (Jointcommission.org, 2015). These requirements are regimented in the National Patient Safety Goals and are enforced via surveys and internal inspections to ensure that healthcare institutions abide by the safety mechanisms put in place to facilitate the optimal patient outcomes and environments.

The NSF and NICE create a means by which NHS trusts ensure the provision of quality standards by making NHS employees accountable for setting, maintaining and monitoring standards of care (DoH 1997). The National Institute for clinical excellence was founded in 1999 and consists of a number of specialized organisations: the NHS centre for reviews and dissemination, national prescribing agency, medical devices agency and institutes of public health. All aimed at creating and maintaining national standards through effective management and cost effectiveness, through audits and reviews of health policies. The commission for health improvement (CHI) aims to monitor the delivery of these standards provided by NICE and NSF through national surveys of the patients experience (Freedom D, 2002). This commission (CHI) sets out to review all NHS trusts including community care. Each NHS trust will be visited over three to four years and be reviewed to decide whether or not national standards are being met and NICE guidelines are being adhered to.

The National Coalition on Health Care also known NCHC is an organization that helps healthcare system to achieve their goals and to improve health care in United States. They are the nonprofit company that represents more than 80 participating organizations like, medical societies, business, union healthcare providers, funds, insurer, etc. Besides, some of their current missions to improve the health care system are to increase resources for developing the culturally competent health and social services. Also, to change public and private sector policies to solve any issue, build and spread knowledge about health status and other health related information. In addition, they working on eliminating health disparities that occur based on

Health care organizations generally volunteer to seek accreditations from the Joint Commission by allowing expert surveyors evaluate their facility. The surveyors are made up of a multi-disciplinary team that spends an average of two days inspecting health care facilities. The purpose for the inspection is to evaluate a health care facilities standards, staff, regulations, policies and procedures, and quality improvement, and performance measurement. The Joint Commission surveyors generally look to see if the organizations governing board is taking part in ensuring that the facilities has facilitated safety and quality assurance program.

The Joint Commission defines the Periodic Performance Review as an assessment tool created to assist health organizations improve and monitor their performance throughout the year. This tool focuses on the processes that influence patient care and safety while providing the structure for unremitting standards fulfillment. Nightingale Community Hospital is compliant with most standards as set forth by the Joint Commission. However, upon inspection and in an effort to stay focused on compliance, our standards committee has located a few discrepancies that must be resolved to maintain our accreditation with the Joint Commission.

The Joint Commission. (2015, June 3). Accreditation Requirements. Retrieved from The Joint Commission E-edition: http://e-dition.jcrinc.com/MainContent

JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) Joint Commission Standards. 2000. Retrieved from www.jcaho.org/standard/jcstandards.html

The surveying process looks at a facilities or organization’s performance in important performance standards. Performance standards for patient safety and rights, treatment and medication safety, and infection control are the main focus. The standards used to evaluate organizations are developed working closely with those people with the best knowledge to develop them, the healthcare experts, providers, and the consumers of the care-the patients.

The Joint Commission gives the hospital the opportunity to make protocols, procedures and processes that are unique to their needs and address this serious issue, also leaving the implementation of such processes to the facility. In addition, the Joint Commission encourages hospitals to include the patient in the preprocedure verification process whenever possible.

The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services consists of a chair, vice chair, seven members and a clerk. The Chair and Vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services are Charles Schwertner and Bob Deuell. Members of the committee include Joan Huffman, Jane Nelson, Robert Nichols, Larry Taylor, Carlos Uresti, Royce West, and Judith Zaffirini and the clerk is Michael Baca (Senate, 2014). As of 3/19/14 the Lieutenant Governor of Texas included two more charges to the previous five interim charges. The most recent interim charges are Charge VI: to evaluate and make recommendations on the current drug abuse and strategies to reduce prescriptions drug abuse in Texas. Also, Charge VII: to monitor the implementation of

"With Joint Commission certification, we are making a significant investment in quality on a day-to-day basis from the top down. Joint Commission accreditation provides us a framework to take our organization to the next level and helps create a culture of excellence,” said Winnie Cullens, Accreditation Coordinator. “This is our fourth Joint Commission certification for our organization, and it shows that we are committed to maintaining excellence and continually improving the care we provide.”

The importance of receiving accreditation from the Joint Commission is critical for medical facilities because it represents high standards of quality assurance which