Health Begets Health

Waking up with the wrong kidney removed is a horror story that’s played out countless times in North American hospitals. Surgeons will most likely walk into your operating room, ask you which body part and which side, and then scrawl your body with markers. Still, errors occasionally happen.

The Joint Commission unveiled a Targeted Solutions Tool to help physicians and hospitals spot one of 29 problems that can lead to an incorrect procedure. The commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare tested the safety tool at eight U.S. hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. Continue reading “Joint Commission project aims to reduce wrong-surgery risks”

THe information that is so readily available online to curious searchers may now be moving to the bedside in some form. Patients and their families are increasingly taking an active role in their health care by becoming informed. A unique patient safety education program will be released to provide patients and their families with instant access to current patient safety videos at their bedside and while receiving care.

The 2012 SAFE CARE Patient Safety Education Program is a free offering developed to assist health care organizations in educating patients to help prevent medical errors. The campaign features videos from The Joint Commission’s Speak Up(TM) campaign, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Kimberly-Clark, the Patient Channel(R) from The Wellness Network, and Safe Care Campaign. The goal of the SAFE CARE Patient Safety Education Program is to save lives, prevent harm and help patients receive safer care.

Continue reading “SAFE CARE Program to Provide Patient Education at Bedside”

The Joint Commission announced the incoming Board of Commissioners for 2012, and the Board’s decision to make the three field representatives for long term care, behavioral health care and home care full voting members.

The seven new members include:

Continue reading “Joint Commission Announces Board of Commissioners for 2012”

As another year rings in JC will be implementing additional performance criteria for certain certifications. Hospitals can choose to adopt tobacco-cessation measures as part of their performance criteria to meet certification by the Joint Commission.

Continue reading “2012 Accreditation to Include Tobacco Cessation Measures”

The Joint Commission issued alert that highlights the hazards of health care worker fatigue and offers strategies to mitigate it. The alert listed nine steps providers can take to lower the risk of harm, including redesigning work schedules, educating staff about the dangers of long hours and encouraging a culture of safety.

Continue reading “Alert on Fatigue and Strategies to Mitigate”

The Joint Commission released its first list of top hospitals, using metrics meant to track quality of care. The list skewed small and rural hospitals. The metrics measure how well hospitals carry out processes of care that the group thinks should be standard for all patients with certain diagnoses. Examples include giving a person who is having a heart attack aspirin upon arrival at the hospital or the use of corticosteroids in children admitted with asthma. Continue reading “Joint Commission Releases Top Hospital List”

Ambulatory care health care leaders will gather in Chicago October 4-5, 2011, for The Joint Commission’s 16th Annual Ambulatory Care Conference. The conference will focus on discovering strategies to demonstrate quality of care to payers, regulatory agencies, and managed care organizations. The program is sponsored by Joint Commission Resources. Continue reading “Joint Commission Ambulatory Care Accreditation Conference Oct. 4-5”

Diagnostic tools are an important component of medical care. However, over-reliance on certain tools is a cause for concern. The Joint Commission issued a sentinel event alert on diagnostic radiation in medical imaging, urging doctors to pay greater attention to the long-term hazards of repeated X-ray exposures.

In the alert, the Oak Park, Ill.-based health care accreditation group suggested a handful of strategies, such as swapping X-ray based scans for ultrasound or MRI, when appropriate, and adhering to dose-lowering guidelines put out by the American College of Radiology and other medical societies. Continue reading “Sentinel Alert on Repeated Xray Exposure”