TJC seeks input on new requirements for workplace violence prevention, resuscitative services

by A.J. Plunkett (aplunkett@decisionhealth.com)

The Joint Commission (TJC) is asking for feedback on proposed changes to hospital requirements on resuscitation and the long-awaited new elements of performance on workplace violence prevention.

TJC posted the workplace violence requirements for field review on January 5 and will accept comments through February 16.

The revisions on resuscitation policies and protocols were posted January 11 and TJC will accept comments through February 22.

Long-discussed and first announced last fall, the new and revised requirements on workplace violence prevention are in the Environment of Care, Human Resources, and Leadership standard chapters.

The new requirements will mandate that hospitals:

• Conduct an annual work-site analysis that includes any workplace violence events and take action on that analysis.
• Provide training, education, and resources for the prevention of workplace violence to leadership, staff and licensed practitioners with 90 days of hire, annually, and ongoing as needed.
• And that leadership must designate an individual to develop a multidisciplinary team to develop policies and procedures to prevent workplace violence, a process for reporting events and a process to follow-up and provide support to victims and witness. Incidents must also be reported to the governing body.

The field review on resuscitative services actually is the second field review, according to TJC. The first review was in June-August 2020. Those proposed requirements were “revised based on public comments from the first field review and the updated 2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and ECC.”

The revisions on resuscitative services provides more detail on what is expected of the education and training of staff under Provision of Care standard PC.02.01.11, and creates a new standard under PC.02.01.20, under which hospitals are required to implement “processes for post-resuscitation care and recovery.”

Hospitals will also be required to collect data on cardiac arrests and resuscitative services, and have information analyzed by an interdisciplinary team, according to proposed revision to the Performance Improvement standards.

Comments can be submitted to TJC through an online survey or an online form, and also can be mailed. For more information, go to TJC’s standards field reviews page at https://www.jointcommission.org/standards/standards-field-reviews/.