Proposed changes would toughen sentinel policy
Possible changes in the sentinel event policy would make it stricter in some regards but also eliminate some ambiguities that could result in an overuse of the accreditation watch status.
The changes were proposed in an internal document of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations in Oakbrook Terrace, IL. Linda Juhant, assistant director for hospitals and laboratories in the department of education programs, revealed the contents of the memo to attendees of the recent meeting of the American Society for Health Care Risk Management, explaining that the changes had been proposed only days before. She now tells Healthcare Risk Management the proposed changes will be considered by Joint Commission officials in January. If approved, it is uncertain how soon the changes could be implemented.
These are the changes proposed to the current sentinel event policy:
• The first criterion for establishing when an event is a sentinel event would be changed with an addition to clarify that the event was not a reasonable outcome. The criterion would be changed to say, "The event resulted in unanticipated death or major permanent loss of function not associated with the patient’s primary condition."
• Some events would automatically be considered sentinel events, regardless of the criteria otherwise used to make that determination. Those events would be infant abductions, discharging an infant to the wrong family, rape by a patient or staff member, a transfusion reaction because of mismatched blood, and surgery on the wrong patient or body part.
• The Joint Commission may encourage self-reporting within five days of when you become aware of your sentinel event as a way to avoid being put on accreditation watch. If the event is reported within five days and an analysis is completed in 30 days and approved by the Joint Commission, the facility would not be placed on accreditation watch.
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