Prior to 2005, the catheterization lab at Mercy Des Moines (IA)–Mercy Heart Hospital (MDM) had a team responsible for manual inventory of 2,200 medical items per day. This task was not only time-consuming, but it also put patients at high risk of coming in contact with an expired medical item...
Nursing documentation is an oft-overcomplicated process. Although many Joint Commission standards require documentation, hospitals tend to write policies with which they cannot comply.
I was always certain that my career in patient safety would be in the delivery sector, in health systems, hospitals, or clinics—settings in which clinicians and patients interact. Based on time spent as a frontline staff member and later as a leader in patient safety, I was sure that this was...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 9
If a procedure has been shifted from the physician to the nurse, can informed consent then be obtained by the nurse, or does that responsibility remain with the ordering physician? One facility, by using nurses for the insertion of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC lines), challenged...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 9
The Joint Commission took a giant step forward in 2009 when it began to include the D icon next to the elements of performance (EP) that require documentation. This ended the long debate over whether a particular EP was required to have documentation support. However, the new icon fails to...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 9
Are you confident enough about your Joint Commission survey results to post them online? Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston did. Luckily, the survey turned out to be one of its best inspections ever, according to Kent B. Lewandrowski, MD, associate professor at Harvard Medical...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 9
Hospitals have multiple options when it comes time to undergo their PPR. The most extensive option, an on-site visit from The Joint Commission, is the most extensive, with the option to treat the PPR as a full-blown mock survey.
The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare has announced it will release a tool specifically targeting one of healthcare’s most persistent challenges–hand hygiene–in September.
