Health Care Accreditation by the Joint Commission Essays

Health Care Accreditation by the Joint Commission Essays Health Care Accreditation by the Joint Commission Paper Health Care Accreditation by the Joint Commission Paper Current success and progress in the health care industry owes a lot to the work of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health organizations (JCAHO) now the Joint Commission. Heath care quality and safety have become the basis for evaluating the competence of health care establishments as well as the compliance with international health care standards. The Joint Commission is a non-profit organization established in 1951 in the United States with the main objective of evaluating and accrediting health care organizations. To date, close to 16,000 organizations in the health care industry in the United States have been accredited by the Joint Commission. Of the 16,000, about 3,900 are home care establishments, 4,400 are hospitals while more than 7,000 include other health care organizations providing related services such as ambulatory care, laboratory, long term services and behavioral health care (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare, 2010). Moreover, the commission is involved in the evaluation and accreditation of networks for health care and health plans. The affairs of the commission are governed by a number of representatives drawn from the American College of Surgeons, the American Hospital association, the American College of Physicians, the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, six public members, the president of the Joint Commission (JC) and a nursing representative (Joint Commission Resources, 2002-2009). However, as from July 2010, the Joint Commission will be subject to the Medicaid and Medicare Centres since the Section 125 of MIPPA-Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act enacted in 2008 recently withdrew the commission’s statutory guaranteed authority. The Joint Commission provides through the accreditation services, a structure that helps health care provision establishments to improve safety and performance. This certification helps these establishments to raise the performance bar on a companywide perspective as well as providing a means for health home care providers to asses and monitor their personal performance basing on the JCAHO-led organizational quality initiatives. Despite the commission being privately run, most state governments have come to recognize its services such that they acknowledge accreditation by the commission as a basic requirement for health care organizations seeking licensure and the Medicaid reimbursement. The Joint Commission spreads information, measures performance, advocates for the implementation of measures on patient safety and introduces the recommendations formulated in various public policies. The commission works in collaboration with the private non-profit making affiliate known as the Joint Commission Resources, Inc (Joint Commission Resources, 2002-2009). In 1997, JCR formed the Joint Commission International (JCI) to extend the mandate of the Joint Commission world wide. On an international level, JCI provides consultation, accreditation, training programs and also publishes accreditation manuals. The Joint Commission has successfully spread its mission to over sixty countries where it evaluates, demonstrates and enhances patient care quality and safety by working in collaboration with the various agencies in public health, health ministries as well as international organizations in healthcare such as WHO. The commission’s goals on patient safety and accreditation standards are updated annually so as to maintain high standards of health care quality. The goals of the commission seek to address the problematic health care areas and also to describe both expert and evidence-based solutions to handle such problems. Most of these goals focus on system wide designs as it plays a central role in the delivery of high quality health care and safety. The process of accreditation The accreditation services are customized to meet the setting of an organization and at the same time maintaining the goals of the commission. The accreditation experts from JC offer an organization comprehensive and practical assistance to it prepare for accreditation (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare, 2010). They begin with an assessment of the organization’s level of compliance with JCI’s standards and then assist in formulating important procedures or steps that will help the organization to meet JCI’s standards. The assessment covers the ambulatory care, the continuum of care, health care transport services, laboratory, and the hospital after which a comprehensive report is prepared and from which corrective actions are formed. Apart from guiding through the preparation of the action plan, the expert consultants provide training and education to the staff. The experts then continue to provide both on and off-site assistance to ensure that the action plans are working. Periodical simulated surveys similar to the JCI’s survey are conducted with the help of the experts to assess readiness for accreditation. A comprehensive survey is also conducted 6 to 8 moths prior to the actual accreditation survey. Accreditation is provided once the preparation is over and the organization is fully compliant to the standards. JCI monitors the systems of the organizations form time to time to ensure compliance. References Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare. (2010). Accreditation Process Guide for Hospitals. Joint Commission on. Joint Commission Resources. Accreditation and Certification. (2002-2009). Retrieved 12 May 2010 from jointcommissioninternational.org/Search/