Editor's Note The Joint Commission on May 8 announced that its Ambulatory Care Accreditation team is launching a "We Know Surgery" campaign to highlight its 45-year history accrediting ambulatory care organizations. The campaign, which is being launched in conjunction with the Ambulatory Surgery Centers Association (ASCA) conference in Nashville May…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on April 24 announced that it will be posting spring 2019 updates to the E-dition® of its accreditation and certification manuals in May. The changes, which can be viewed on an organization’s Joint Commission Connect® extranet site, will go into effect July 1 unless otherwise…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on April 17 that the April issue of Quick Safety focuses on drug diversion and examines patterns and trends that could indicate drug diversion. It also offers safety actions organizations can take and describes how to take the mistakes other hospitals have made and…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum (NQF) on March 27 named the recipients of the 2018 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. The Awards recognize innovative approaches to improve patient safety and quality of care. The winners are: Brent C. James, MD, MStat, clinical professor,…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 27 posted the “Top 5” requirements identified most frequently as “not compliant” during surveys and reviews in 2018. The Top 5 for hospital accreditation are: LS.02.01.35: The hospital provides and maintains systems for extinguishing fires (88.85%). EC.02.05.01: The hospital manages risks associated with…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 20 announced that time is running out for organizations to submit applications for the 2019 Pioneers in Quality Proven Practices Collection. Applications must be submitted online by April 5. Among topics of interest: Demonstrating improvements in clinical performance or outcomes using electronic clinical…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 13 released its sentinel event statistics for 2018, the majority of which were voluntarily reported by an accredited or certified organization. Of the 10 most frequently reported events, falls and unintended retention of a foreign body were at the top with 111 reports…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 6 announced that it is moving the inpatient and outpatient Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement (THKR) implementation guides from the performance measure webpage to the 2019 Specifications Manual for Joint Commission National Quality Measures. The Manual was published in February. The move will…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 6 reminded organizations submitting CY 2018 electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) data that the deadline is 8 pm CT on March 15. Two submission methods are available: Listed ORYX eCQM Vendor. Direct Data Submission Platform. There will be no extensions, and data cannot…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on February 27 that in support of organizations adopting electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), it is accepting applications from accredited hospitals and health systems for the “2019 Pioneers in Quality Proven Practices Collection.” The organizations’ success stories can be used as learning tools to…

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