Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 26 posted a reminder that whenever non-waived laboratory services are provided on-site (either directly or through contract) within a Joint Commission accredited facility, a separate 2-year cycle laboratory accreditation survey must also be conducted either by the Joint Commission or one of its…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 21 announced that it has created specific versions of 19 elements of performance (EPs) for deemed ambulatory surgical centers and specific versions for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to improve access in the E-dition. The EPs were added for the Centers…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on February 21 that users of the Center for Transforming Healthcare’s Targeted Solutions Tool (TST) for Hand Hygiene can now record their observations on any mobile device or tablet by downloading a mobile app from the Google Play or Apple app store. The mobile…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 14 announced that the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) has launched a new initiative for US hospitals to complete their attestation when renewing their NPDB registrations. The NPDB is a repository of reports on medical malpractice payments and adverse actions related to healthcare…

Read More

Editor's Note Strictly enforcing a ban on skullcaps in the OR had no impact on surgical site infection (SSI) rates in this study, presented at the annual Academic Surgical Congress in Jacksonville, Florida. The analysis included American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) data on 1,901…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 14 announced that accredited hospitals should start thinking about electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) success stories to share in the 2018 Pioneers in Quality Proven Practices Collection. Proven Practices was launched last year and is a peer-to-peer sharing of specific practices that an…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 7 announced that it is seeking comments on proposed revisions to its credentialing and privileging standards for contract services in Hospital, Critical Access Hospital, Ambulatory Health Care, Office-based Surgery, Nursing Care Center, and Behavioral Health Care accreditation programs. The revisions clarify or consolidate existing…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 31 announced that a new brochure is available to help healthcare organizations inform patients about healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and prevention. The brochure, titled, “For Our Patients and Their Visitors: Help Prevent Infections,” is derived from the resource, “Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission reported on January 31 that it had confirmed with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that organizations are required to have two exercises of their emergency operations plan annually. Among the organizations to which the requirement applies are: deemed hospitals critical access hospitals…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 24 announced that its January Quick Safety examines second victim experiences and safety actions to consider, and it also includes an anonymous, personal story of a Joint Commission employee who is a second victim. Though the patient and family are the priority for…

Read More