Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on March 18 that it is suspending all regular surveying, effective March 16. This is being done to make sure the Joint Commission does not interfere with the work of healthcare organizations to prepare and care for their patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The…

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Editor's Note In a March 4 press release, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called on all healthcare providers to make sure they are implementing infection control practices, which they are required to maintain at all times, in an effort to limit the spread of the Novel Coronavirus…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 26 announced that it had made minor modifications to its on-site survey process that will go into effect March 1, 2020. The modifications were made to better accommodate critical survey activities for all accreditation programs, except for laboratory services accreditation. The modifications also…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced February 19 that the Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth has been awarded the first Primary Heart Attack Center (PHAC) certification by the Joint Commission and American Heart Association. The certification standardizes and improves coordinated systems of care for identification, assessment, monitoring,…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 5 announced that a new performance improvement (PI) Accelerate PI dashboard is now available for accredited hospitals. It is posted in the “Resources and Tools” section of the Joint Commission Connect extranet site. The dashboard, which is intended to be a springboard for…

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Editor's Note The Joint commission on January 29 announced a new R3 report detailing changes to the Advanced Certification for Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement program. Effective July 1, there will be 11 new and 11 revised elements of performance (EPs) that will be applicable to all accredited ambulatory…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on January 15 that it had launched its new website design late last year, with new features that include: a single sign-on for the multiple sites of the Joint Commission enterprise improved mobile viewing and navigation dynamic content organized according to care setting, healthcare…

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[This article from the January 2020 issue of OR Manager summarizes information presented at the 2019 OR Manager Conference. The presenter offered tips to help attendees comply with Joint Commission standards and achieve a successful Joint Commission survey. Readers are asked to note the following points of clarification: The presentation…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced December 11 that starting January 1, 2020, it will no longer have contracts with ORYX chart-based vendors for accreditation or certification purposes. Hospitals with advanced certification programs must manually enter their performance measure data into the Certification Measure Information Process (CMIP) app on their…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced December 11 that during the appeals process of he United States Pharmacopeia (USP) 797 chapter revisions, it will evaluate organizations based on the version they have adopted−either 2008 or the 2019 revised chapter. Organizations may not independently choose specific components from both versions, but…

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