Nearly 2 million people suffer from prescription opioid disorder and the number of opioid prescriptions written annually has quadrupled in under two decades.
Christina Thielst, FACHE says that CMS can reduce variation and increase transparency for consumers while avoiding unintended consequences using its existing transparency policy.
In a bid to make it easier for healthcare organizations to keep themselves in line with all the requirements that accreditation entails, The Joint Commission has updated its Evidence of Standards Compliance (ESC) form.
Facilities often have questions when surveyors come to visit. Some of the most frequently asked questions involve security and confidentiality, how to make sure surveyors see what they need to without violating hospital safety. In the July issue of Perspectives, The Joint Commission answered...
The Joint Commission has released prepublication standards on new and updated pain assessment and management requirements for hospitals. The accreditor said it used the revision to address disparities between its standards and what the literature recommended.
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The Joint Commission has revised several of its requirements for National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) 7, which focuses on the issue of healthcare-associated infections (HAI). The revisions go into effect on January 1, 2018, and apply to hospitals, critical access hospitals (CAH), and nursing care...
Hundreds of people in U.S. hospitals have been sickened by exposure to deadly bacteria on poorly disinfected, but routinely used diagnostic scopes. Additionally, several hospitals have been hit by major fines and loss of accreditation for failure to adhere to strict regulations requiring...
On June 2, CMS issued a new memo to surveyors on the importance of reducing cases of Legionella infections. Accredited facilities should double check their waterborne pathogens compliance, as surveyors will likely pay more attention to it in upcoming surveys.
For the second time in three years, The Joint Commission has released a Quick Safety issue on the topic of improperly sterilized or high-level disinfection (HLD) equipment and devices. The accreditor writes that despite bringing the problem to light in 2014, there’s an increase in cases of...
