Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (Jcaho)

Eventually, the minimum standards evolved and began to encompass physical safety, equipment and administrative standards. Survey teams started to branch out across the nation in an attempt to keep up with the increased demand for accreditation. As a result, the American College of Physicians, the AMA, and the Canadian Medical Association joined the ACS to form an independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals in

As shown, communication is a critical to hospital’s patient safety. The Joint Commission is a regulatory agency that makes hospital think about

I chose the monopolistically structured JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations). They are the only organization that determines whether hospitals or medical facilities are up to their standards enough to receive reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. “The Joint Commission is a monopoly because it has unique statutory protection in the USA and collects $113 million in annual revenue; it is the only organization in the USA of this nature” (Joint Commission Requirements, 2009). This revenue is mainly from the fees it charges US hospitals for evaluating their compliance with federal regulations.

The responsibilities of the Joint Commission are to set standards to help improve the quality of health care services and provide safety guidelines for health care organizations. Their mission as a nonprofit organization is to continuously improve health care (The Joint Commission, 2010). The Joint Commission accredits and certifies health care organizations by surveying facilities to ensure health care standards, performance measurements, safety guidelines have been implemented and carried out for better patient. The Joint commission sets standards and guidelines in compliance with federal laws to evaluate health care services.

The surveys are meant to be specific and consistent and are not just used to evaluate the organizations for improvement but are also to educate in the best practice standards adopted throughout health care and to help staff in ways to continually improve an organizations performance. For this purpose, in 1996 the Quality Check website was launched to help the Joint Commission provide information regarding the performance of accredited organizations to consumers and organizations. Users are able to search for accredited or certified organizations; they can locate organizations by either type of service or geographical area and lists of certified organizations as well as a hospital’s performance measures can be obtained.

They are all involved in healthcare safety and lay down accreditation standards focused on health records documentation and information management.

The Joint Commission is a self-governing, nonprofitmaking organization that accredits and certifies over 21, 000 health care organizations, hospital, and programs in the United States. The body was formed in 1951. Since its creation, the organization has been working relentlessly to augment healthcare for the people of U.S. and have continued inspiring healthcare organizations with an aim to promote and advocate for quality as well as value in the healthcare ("About The Joint Commission | Joint Commission," 2016). Joint Commission creates performance standards for certification and accreditation programs that healthcare organizations and hospital facilities are demanded to pass to get accreditation from the body. These standards are

The roots of The Joint Commission began in the American College of Surgeons (ACS), founded in 1913, which eventually lead to voluntary onsite inspections of hospitals in 1918. In 1951, The American College of Physicians, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, and the Canadian Medical Association joined forces with the ACS to create the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH). JCAH was formed as an independent, not-for-profit organization whose primary purpose was to provide voluntary accreditation for meeting established minimum quality standards. It was not until 1970 that the standards of quality were reformed to represent the highest achievable levels, instead of minimum necessary levels. In 1987, the company was renamed the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), which was shortened to today’s The Joint Commission after rebranding in 2007. (Stanberry, 2012)

There are many roles of the Joint Commission in accrediting medical facilities. The Joint Commission was founded in 1951 and is the nation’s largest accrediting body in health care. They evaluate nearly 21,000 health care organizations in the Unites States. (The Joint Comm, 2016) Once an organization earns the accreditation they are re-surveyed every three years unannounced. They are responsible for making sure that healthcare facilities are up to date on all standards, policies, and procedures. “Joint Commission accreditation can be earned by many types of health care organizations, including hospitals, doctor’s offices, nursing homes, office-based surgery centers, behavioral health treatment facilities, and providers of home care services

The Joint Commision (a not-for-profit) is known as a symbol of quality for performance standard in hospitals and organization in the United States. Their purpose is to accredit and certify that nearly 21,000 health care organization are providing safe and effective care. If a hospital or organization chooses to maintain their accreditation they are provided with a manual which includes a list of chapters such as, the environment of care, leadership, provision of care, treatment and services, life safety, and information management. In each chapter, it describes specific standards/requirements that must be met to maintain compliance. The Joint Commission also addresses health record documentation standards and elements that include, legibility,

Accreditation provides a competitive advantage in the health care industry and strengthens community confidence in safety of care and treatment. Accredited hospitals provide higher quality of care to patients. It improves risk management and risk reduction and helps in organizing and strengthens patient safety efforts. It enhances recruitment and staff education and provides education on god practices to improve healthcare operations. The paper discusses how The Joint Commission assists in having better outcomes in terms of safety in Western Medical Center Hospital. In today’s society, every health care organization should provide a proof of accreditation and are subject to a three-year accreditation cycle. The Commission develops performance standards that address some of the important elements of operation, such as patient care, infection control, medication safety, and patient rights.

The importance of receiving accreditation from the Joint Commission is critical for medical facilities because it represents high standards of quality assurance which

One agency that consumers utilize to assess healthcare organizations is the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission is an independent agency that provides accreditation and certification for quality, safety, value, and

The Joint Commission is an accrediting agency that evaluates the services provided by health institutions and recognize that after their assessments meet all requirements. This visit is requested by the institution and after being accredited are visited every three years. “The Joint Commission is working to align and improve how accreditation and certification work together to enhance their value to organizations” (Horn, 2012, p.243). It is a prestige by being accredited by the Joint Commission. The hospital institution is evaluated in all aspects evaluated from the triage is performed in the ER, permits, documentation, security, administration of drugs, surgical procedures, to infection control and other aspects that are related to the safety

Patient safety is the first priority of all accrediting agencies. Joint Commission play a vital role to control over most of the healthcare organization. Effective communication is one of the top requirement of today’s competitive health care professions field. United State as a multicultural country there are many different languages that are used for communication. English is not the primary language for many of us, meaning they have low health literacy rate and have difficult using the health related information. Joint commission is providing a lot of information to improve communication between patient and health care provider. They are developing different types of monograph that will inspire healthcare organization to integrate the concept from communication. They are distributing different types of paper and electronic tools that are used in most of the health care organization to increase the way of communication between patient and healthcare provider. All health care organization are required to use these types of informative tool to record the way