Surveyors from CMS, The Joint Commission, and other healthcare accreditors are trained to seek and find accreditation violations when they tour a hospital or clinic. And once they find those violations, they have no qualms about reporting noncompliance.
Preparing your hospital for an accreditation survey is stressful, year-round work. Because survey schedules are unannounced, accreditation professionals must always be ready for CMS, The Joint Commission, or other accrediting organizations to show up at their door.
Kurt Patton, MS, RPh, founder and president emeritus of Patton Healthcare Consulting, knows intimately about some of the misunderstood compliance challenges in hospitals today. He catches up with IAQ to talk about some of them in this first part.
Healthcare accreditation and compliance is made of numerous moving parts and requires a great deal from the people who work in it. The role is more than staying updated on all the standards and regulations from CMS, The Joint Commission (TJC), or other authorities having jurisdiction. It also...
Gayle Nash, RN, MPH, president and CEO of Nash Healthcare Consulting and a board member of Inside Accreditation & Quality, shares a wide range of observations about what matters most in today’s accreditation and quality environment.
For accreditation and quality professionals, the value of healthcare accreditation is apparent. It maintains a standard of patient care, identifies areas of quality improvement, and keeps CMS funding flowing into the facility. However, surveyors don’t want to see just accreditation professionals...
CMS survey data from 2024 paints a clear picture for ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) on what to look out for: Persistent gaps in infection control, sanitation, documentation, and governance continue to trigger citations across the country.
On July 1, The Joint Commission’s (TJC) new and revised requirements for opioid treatment programs (OTP) will take effect for healthcare organizations accredited under the Behavioral Health and Human Services program. TJC writes that the update will increase access to life-saving medications for...
The March edition of The Joint Commission’s Perspectives announced that as of March 30, 2025, accreditation surveys for hospices would include a Life Safety Code® (LSC) surveyor. This comes as part of a group of new and revised requirements for deemed...
