DNV GL Healthcare and The Joint Commission (TJC) are offering guidance to hospitals on the compliance, quality, and patient safety issues that are critical during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DNV GL Healthcare offers a self-assessment tool to help hospitals identify potential problems and paths to improvement, and the accrediting body says it can be used for any infectious disease.
Use is optional, but DNV GL says the results may be useful when discussing infection prevention during focused reviews. Using checklist questions within multiple areas, DNV GL’s tool includes voluntary self-assessment checklists provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as infection prevention and emergency preparedness issues.
- The DNV GL tool for acute care hospitals.
- The DNV GL tool for critical access hospitals.
- Other COVID-19 guidance from DNV GL.
TJC also is providing COVID-19 guidance, particularly regarding the use of face masks. It notes that no TJC standards prohibit staff from using personal protective equipment (PPE) brought from home, but that “homemade masks are an extreme measure, and should be used only when standard PPE of proven protective value is unavailable.”
TJC’s guidance is available here.
Read on to learn more about compliance, quality, and patient safety issues that are critical during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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