-
In the latest move in the continuing saga of the National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on medication reconciliation, The Joint Commission has said while it will continue to evaluate compliance with the standard during on-site surveys, "it will not be factored into the organization's accreditation decision and will not generate Requirements for Improvement [RF])." The new policy, announced recently, became effective retroactively to Jan. 1, 2009.
-
Most managers have been pushing extra hard to improve safety over the last few years, and The Joint Commission says all the hard work is paying off.
-
Joyce Cardinal, RN, MBA, director of quality at Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon, WA, says she was lucky. One of Skagit's surgeons is on the SCOAP data committee, and after she attended a meeting about the surgical checklist, she already had a physician champion on board to get it started.
-
Less than three months after releasing an addendum to its 2009 accreditation standards, The Joint Commission is telling hospitals to throw it out and refer instead to a newly revised edition.
-
Houston-based Memorial Hermann Healthcare System will be honored this month at a gala event in Washington, DC, as the winner of the National Quality Forum's (NQF) 2009 National Quality Healthcare Award. Michael Shabot, MD, system chief medical officer, explains why the health system was chosen and how it met the five criteria NQF established for the award:
-
If flight crews have to do it before takeoff, why shouldn't surgical teams do it before cutting into a patient?
-
In conjunction with the American Heart Association's updated Get With The Guidelines program on heart failure, The Joint Commission is now offering hospitals a certificate of distinction in heart failure, as part of its disease-specific care advanced certification program.
-
Traditionally, patients have been cast in a passive role in their own health care. Now, "patient involvement" has become an oft-heard term in hospital regulations and discussion, with acknowledgement that patients themselves can play an integral role in their care. How does The Joint Commission promote encouraging patients to speak up?
-
-
Is routine preoperative testing an outdated concept? Despite the fact that many outpatient surgery programs continue to perform the testing, even for simple eye operations, a recent study raises the question about whether such testing has an impact on clinical outcomes.
