While last year The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert to hospitals urging them to do a better job of identifying suicidal ideation in patients, this year the accreditor is doubling down, issuing specific warnings in Joint Commission publications and FAQs outlining concerns about...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 28, Issue 11
Handoffs (also known as transitioning) are the passing of patients between caregivers, plus the information that caregivers exchange during the process. The latter represents a major point of failure for healthcare; each handoff runs the risk of key treatment information being garbled, forgotten...
The Joint Commission has released a special report on suicide prevention in the November edition of Perspectives. The report contains recommendations from an expert panel on how to mitigate environmental hazards that suicidal patients could use to harm themselves.
A team of physicians from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has put forward a strategy that aims to standardize infection prevention guidelines for procedures performed outside the operating room.
It's book season at HCPro (also Halloween/Thanksgiving/sweater season) and we need your help!
This is the time when we come up with possible book ideas for 2018. But of course, we don't want to write about something readers aren't interested in, and want to hear your...
Every facility wants to give the best possible care to every patient who walks through its doors, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. But wanting to help people isn't the same as helping them or knowing what they need.
In 2016, 4.1% of the U.S. population identified as...
Last week was National Fire Prevention Week, but that doesn’t mean the time to focus on fire safety is over. According to The Joint Commission, surgical fires happen just as often as wrong site surgeries and often have fatal consequences.
Review how clinicians and other staff interact with patients who have communication issues, such as deafness or limited English proficiency (LEP). Not only are communication issues receiving increased scrutiny from patients and the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), but your hospital could lose...
