ASHRM Lists Six Needed Policy Changes
Here are summaries of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management's recommended changes in the sentinel event policy:
1. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) should suspend sentinel event reporting requirements until the problems outlined by ASHRM can be resolved to the degree needed to eliminate fear and risk of subversion of adverse outcome review processes already in place in health care organizations.
2. JCAHO should work collaboratively with ASHRM and other organizations to develop mechanisms for the protection of sentinel event information from disclosure, discovery, and admissibility. Such efforts should include development of amending language to the Health Care Quality Improve-ment Act of 1986 as well as modifications to state laws as needed.
3. All stakeholders should work to develop practical, short-term solutions to address the risk of disclosure, discovery, and admissibility of information pertaining to sentinel event and root cause analysis. The solutions should include education of JCAHO staff members and surveyors on the concerns of risk managers and replacement of the root cause analysis format with standardized criteria to allow more flexibility.
4. JCAHO should develop more realistic deadlines for the sentinel event process.
5. JCAHO should revise its definition of a sentinel event to provide clear direction on what constitutes such an event and should delete the phrase "risk thereof" from the definition.
6. JCAHO should continue to develop and foster collaborative relationships with ASHRM and other professional organizations to ensure future initiatives properly consider and incorporate measures that protect from disclosure, discoverability, and admissibility of information gathered by facilities to comply with its standards.
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