Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on September 18 that the deadline for submitting applications for the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards is October 1. Started by the Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) in 2002, the awards recognize the outstanding work of individuals and…

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Editor's Note Though recent guidelines mandating additional barrier attire for all scrubbed and unscrubbed OR personnel from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Joint Commission, which include bouffant caps covering all hair and long-sleeved surgical attire covering all exposed skin, this study finds that this mandate does…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 11 announced that it had posted a new version of the Comprehensive Cardiac Center (CCC) Certification program’s standardized measures implementation guide on its website with updated measure specifications. Beginning January 1, 2020, data collection on five new inpatient performance measures will be mandatory…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 4 posted the Top 5 most challenging requirements identified most frequently as “not compliant” during surveys and reviews during the first half of 2019. The Top 5 for hospital accreditation are: LS.02.01.35: The hospital provides and maintains systems for extinguishing fires (91%). EC.02.05.01:…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 28 announced five new inpatient performance measures for the Comprehensive Cardiac Center Certification program, which will be effective January 1, 2020. Data collection for the measures will be mandatory for currently certified programs and organizations seeking initial certification. In addition to the mandatory…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 28 announced the publication of an R3 Report on two new standards designed to improve the quality and safety of perinatal care in accredited hospitals. The standards, which will take effect July 1, 2020, require organizations to examine their processes and procedures for…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 21 posted a reminder for accredited hospitals with electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) requirements that they must submit CY 2019 eCQM data via the Direct Data Submission (DDS) Platform. The deadline to onboard to the DDS Platform is December 20, 2019, and the…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 14 released new sentinel event statistics for the first half of 2019. The latest data also introduce new categories for describing sentinel events, including suicide-related events, surgical or invasive procedure events, anesthesia-related events, and product or device events. The top five most frequently…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on August 14 that accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals will be able to supplement local data with data acquired from Medicare-certified hospitals and critical access hospitals for the purposes of practitioner credentialing, privileging, and evaluation (focused and ongoing). The supplemental data may not…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced August 7 that the applicability of its Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation standards for telehealth organizations, which provide remote services, deploy in-person staff, and/or have equipment used between patients, is being evaluated. In the meantime, areas of noncompliance related to infection control, equipment and utility…

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