Joint Commission Case Analysis

The Joint Commission Story
Delaney, Tamara
OSU ID 200135958
The Ohio State University
SP17 NRSADVN 4780 - ASSIGNMENT: Week 2 Paper
23 January, 2017 The Joint Commission, formerly known as The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations was originally founded as The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals in 1951 “to provide voluntary accreditation” (Joint, 2016) for hospitals. Over the next several decades, the organization incorporated accreditation for other healthcare organizations including long-term care, psychiatric care facilities, ambulatory care, hospice, home care, and laboratories. It is a not-for-profit organization that “evaluates and accredits more than 21,000 health care organizations and programs in
the United States” (TJC, 2016, March). The organization’s roots were planted by Ernest Amory Codman, M.D. Codman was a surgeon in Boston, MA who made significant contributions to “the study of medical outcomes” (Ernest, 2016) to improve hospital care. The Joint Commission asserts itself to be “the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care” (TJC, 2016).
The Joint Commission vision is that “All people always experience the safest, highest quality, best-value health care across all settings” (TJC, 2009). Dr. Codman kept what he called “end result cards” on all of his patients and followed them for at least a year to monitor outcomes. He tracked diagnosis and treatments and evaluated the impact each had on long term results. The Joint Commission utilizes similar research processes, scientific literature, and expert consensus to develop guidelines for best practice healthcare. “New standards are added only if they relate to patient safety or quality of care, have a positive impact on health outcomes, meet or surpass law and regulation, and can be accurately and readily measured” (TJC, 2016, March). For example, since the early 1990’s in order for a hospital to be accredited by The Joint Commission, they must have a policy prohibiting smoking in the hospital. The Joint Commissions core measures have become a gold standard of care with a wide array of evidence demonstrating reductions in mortality, re-hospitalization, infections, falls, cardiac arrests, length of stay, and improvement in quality of life. To “promote specific improvements in patient safety, the Joint Commission has also issued National Patient Safety Goals” (Mascia, 2009). A group of patient safety experts comprised of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals “who have hands-on experience in addressing patient safety issues in a wide variety of health care settings” advise “on the development and updating of” (TJC, 2016, December) National Patient Safety Goals.
In 1965, the U.S. Congress passed the Social Security Amendments Act which (amongst many other provisions) recognized that a hospital receiving Joint Commission accreditation was in compliance with most Medicare Conditions of Participation for Hospitals, henceforth allowing for automatic participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs. There have been several amendments to this rule as well as additional laws that recognize accreditation as compliance with minimum healthcare standards. Dr. Codman’s was a pioneer in improving healthcare quality. He believed “it is the duty of every hospital to establish a follow-up system” (Ernest, 2016) so as to improve care and outcomes. The Joint Commission Story
References
TJC.
(2016, December 12). Facts about the National Patient Safety Goals. Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://www.jointcommission.org/facts_about_the_national_patient_safety_goals/.
TJC. (2009, August 15). The Joint Commission Mission Statement. Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://www.jointcommission.org/the_joint_commission_mission_statement/
TJC. (2016, March 25). Facts about Joint Commission standards. Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://www.jointcommission.org/facts_about_joint_commission_accreditation_standards/
TJC. (2016, March 25). History of The Joint Commission. Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://www.jointcommission.org/facts_about_the_national_patient_safety_goals/.
Ernest Amory Codman. (2016, December 25). Retrieved January 23, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Amory_Codman
Joint Commission (2016). The Joint Commission: Over a century of quality and safety [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/TJC_history_thru_2016.pdf
Mascia, A., Richter, K., Convery, P., & Haydar, Z. (2009). Linking Joint Commission inpatient core measures and National Patient Safety Goals with evidence. Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 22(2),
103-111.