Thanks, peace. In your experience, do outside regulators ever come in and conduct an audit of the premises and the records?
Um, I think CM was not familiar with that regulation. I wonder how he secured them at his GF's place?? Ugly, ugly picture.
ABSOLUTELY!
The JCAHO (The Joint Committee for Accredidation of Heathcare Organizations) is a non profit organization that
provides information about the accredidation of heathcare providers in your area. Look here for more information:
www.jointcommission.org....
JCAHO comes to every accredited hospital in the US every 1-3 yrs depending how well your last score was.
They come unannounced and, from my experience, several JCAHO staff members spend from 3-7 days in medical
records reviewing patient charts for correct documentation.
They also go to every unit and watch staffs' performance. They ask sooo many questions.
They check the med rooms to make sure everything is in perfect order, checking for expired dates on meds & supplies.
They especially check the routine for despensing narcotics. Nurses are ask many questions re meds, procedures and policies.
Doctors are questioned and asked questions also.
They check the pharmacies and make sure the pharmacists know their stuff.
They go to HR and check that every license is legit and up to date/current.
IOW: They are extremely thorough and expect to find that the utmost in the very best patient care is being taken.
And they make sure that the hospital's Policy and Procedure Manuals are current and in places on each unit where
each staff can easily find it and refer to it.
And JCAHO does a lot more stuff that I can't recall right now.
It causes the entire hospital staff, in every department, a lot of stress & anxiety & a lot of time preparing
(checking that everything is in perfect order) for JCAHO's visits!!!!
As one person put it:
"Joint Commission certification is a hallmark of excellence. We found that preparing for certification unified our entire staff.
They rallied as a team to work toward the goal of meeting the certification requirements. Our hospital wanted to be a center
of excellence and certification helped us achieve this goal."
Shannon M. Jackson, M.S.W., L.I.S.W. - Director, Continuum of Services
Carolinas Medical Center
