Joint Commission targets surgery
Five areas identified for core measures
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has identified surgical procedures and complications as one of five areas for which core performance measures will be developed. The other four areas are acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and pregnancy and related conditions.
"Now that those five areas have been identified, the Joint Commission will convene clinical panels in each area and determine specific measures," says Ceil Stern, director of accreditation and licensure for the Princeton-based New Jersey Hospital Association.
A nationwide Core Measurement Implementa-tion Task Force has been put in place by Dennis O’Leary, president of the Joint Commission. The task force was a response to a letter O’Leary received in January from 17 state hospital associations that raised concerns about the Oryx initiative, the Joint Commission’s new electronic reporting system.
"We have an active role in the process now," Stern says. The group met in late March for the first time and has met periodically since that time, in person and by phone. "We in the field bear the burden of implementing performance measures, so we need to be included when the Joint Commission develops policies that are going to impact us," Stern says. "I do think the Joint Commission has responded appropriately to our letter in terms of convening the task force."
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