Editor's Note The Joint Commission is asking for comments on revisions to its National Patient Safety Goal on prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (NPSG.07.06.01). Comments will be accepted until October 14.  

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced September 2 that it has made changes to its CY 2016 ORYX performance measure reporting requirements to align with changes made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Inpatient quality Reporting Program. The changes include retirement of seven chart-abstracted measures, addition…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission reviewed 9,119 sentinel events from 1995 through the second quarter of 2015. They included: 1,162—wrong-patient, wrong-site, wrong-procedure 1,037—unintended retention of a foreign body 1,013—delay in treatment 884—op/postop complication 228—medical-equipment related 182—infection-related event 130—fire 109—anesthesia-related event.  

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission has identified five requirements for accreditation that healthcare organizations were most frequently found as “non compliant” during surveys and reviews from January 1 to June 30, 2015. They are: Laboratory and Point-of-Care Testing QSA.01.01.01: The laboratory participates in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission has partnered with the Food & Drug Administration, Council for Surgical & Perioperative Safety, and others in the Preventing Surgical Fires Initiative, which has released new, updated resources for preventing surgical fires. These include: A presentation on “Preventing Surgical Fires and Burns in Healthcare Facilities”…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission has updated its “Ambulatory Care Accreditation Survey Activity Guide for Health Care Organizations,” and has made it available on the Joint Commission Connect extranet site. Among the updates: Survey document list: A new item has been added requesting identification of all locations where high-level disinfection…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission is offering a new integrated care certification option that is focused on helping health care organizations improve coordination across the continuum of care. The new certification assesses how well a health care organization integrates information sharing, transitions of care, hand-off communications, and other key activities…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering on July 14 launched the new Physical Environment portal. The portal provides online resources and tools to help hospitals improve compliance with the eight most challenging Joint Commission Life Safety and Environment of Care standards. Upcoming education modules…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission is urging accredited hospitals to share their performance measure solutions in the Core Measure Solution Exchange (CSME). CSME is an interactive, online, peer-to-peer collaborative network where hospitals that have attained excellent performance on core measures, including accountability measures, can share their success stories. To date,…

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The Joint Commission, Department of Health Services Research, and researchers from Rhode Island Hospital and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America are conducting a study that will provide estimates of the costs and benefits of Ebola preparedness to hospitals. For the study, a nationally representative sample of hospitals will be…

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