Accredition
A Consideration of the Quality and Access of Educational Opportunities for ACHE Members
The ACHE (American College of Healthcare Executives) has introduced a radical new licensing system which, while entirely voluntary at the time that this publication is written, is no mere bureaucratic exercise: it is intended to act as a refining tool to sharpen the mind and test the skill set of the respective ACHE member. The licensing scheme actively requires that its members re-accredit themselves on a 3-year basis in order to continually ensure that the employee is indeed able to maintain the exemplary standards expected and demanded by the ACHE organization.
There have been some who have regarded the licensing and accreditation system operated by the ACHE as too arbitrary and draconian, that it imposes an unnecessary and indeed unfair level of strain upon the member of the organization. In reality, the member will be amply rewarded for their diligence as it provides them with a significant competitive edge over their peers in the industry and, given the current turbulent nature of the economy, every little bit helps.
A particularly commendable perk offered by the ACHE are the so-called “clusters,” which are annual events typified by a series of educational seminars devoted to a particular issue and topic within the healthcare industry. These allow the member to further cultivate their skills and finesse their clinical experience. Provisions have also been made to provide educational and learning resources on the Internet in the interests of cost saving for members and also to reach out to a far wider audience than initially intended.
In addition, there has been the introduction of online seminars which allow a member who is interested to fill out forms and take a brief examination which, if successfully completed as required, will entitle that particular member to earn additional credits toward their current degree. This in turn helps professionals to quickly and easily specialize within a niche.
http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/qso/cert/bche2.htm
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Achieves 99 Percent CPOE Adoption
Phoenix Children’s Hospital, born in 1983, is one of the ten largest children’s hospitals in the U.S. It serves Arizona and the other Southwestern states, offering world-class specialty and sub-specialty inpatient, outpatient, emergency, and trauma care. With care in 40 sub-specialty fields of pediatric medicine, it has most recently focused the development of its medical programs on neonatology, neurosciences, hematology/oncology, cardiac services, orthopedics, and Level 1 trauma.
The metropolitan Phoenix area expects an explosive growth in population over the next decade. To address this anticipated growth, Phoenix Children’s Hospital recently announced a $588 million expansion plan that includes major facility upgrades, staff additions, and branching out into high-growth areas of the valley.
The Phoenix Children’s Hospital is also a leader in the completion of its hospital-wide activation of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system. As announced by Eclipsys in a news release on August 24, 2009, Phoenix Children’s has successfully achieved a 99 percent adoption rate of their Sunrise Acute Care™ solution. Physicians and other clinical staff at Phoenix Children’s now place 99 percent of their orders electronically. It is the latest milestone in the multi-phase effort to expand the CPOE technologies throughout the hospital system.
The success of the hospital-wide CPOE launch is attributed to its “hybrid rollout methodology,” according to the release. Each department was enabled to implement the system as it was ready to, with each department being embedded with information technology (IT) staff support and advanced training. There was a common deadline among departments to ensure that systems goals were met.
The goals were, in fact, exceeded with a 95 percent adoption rate upon implementation of the new hospital-wide system. Physicians have been pleased with the system and the capability to sign orders electronically, reporting significant time savings.
Previous to the hospital-wide launch, Phoenix Children’s employed Eclipsys’ CPOE systems in only two units. Knowledge-Based Charting™ from Eclipsys was activated last fall to convert records into an electronic format.
About Eclipsys’ CPOE Systems
Eclipsys’ CPOE systems automatically interpret and recalculate new order protocols based on patient condition updates. Working in real time, the high speed and adoption rates are based on complex, embedded algorithms, transcending fundamental order entry. The intuitive solution is easy to implement to provide complex clinical decision support capabilities tailored to how physicians practice medicine. Complex order sets and medication ordering are fully automated, including complicated treatment plans, long-range medication ordering, and exacting protocols often required in pediatric and oncology care environments.
“Meaningful Use” and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Jay Deady, executive VP of Eclipsys’ Client Solutions, states in the news release that the success of the CPOE project at Phoenix Children’s Hospital supports the company’s position on the “meaningful use” of an EHR’s definition under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). With the success of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital electronic conversion, it is demonstrated that CPOE adoption as required for incentive payments authorized by ARRA is not too onerous for institutions to meet by the deadlines set.
Eclipsys believes it to be critical to the improvement of patient care quality and safety, as well as for cost containment in the U.S. healthcare system, that a specific timetable be established to place clinical decision support tools in the hands of practitioners at the point of care. Eclipsys encourages the adoption of CPOE within the ARRA “meaningful use” definition beyond the current 10 percent rate that they believe is easy to achieve. By meeting only this very limited goal, 90 percent of an institution’s care will remain uncoordinated until higher rates of implementation are achieved.
The Pharmacist’s Role in Meeting Joint Commission Standards
One of the responsibilities of hospital pharmacists is staying informed and updated about Joint Commission Standards and National Patient Safety Goals. These often require increased attention from pharmacists in order to keep the hospital pharmacy compliant. This issue is so important that some hospitals, such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, have created the position of compliance pharmacist to ensure that all Joint Commission standards are continuously met or exceeded.
There are a number of approaches a pharmacist can take to be involved in accreditation. Much of it depends on how much hospitals want their pharmacists to be involved. Some pharmacists only read the Joint Commission’s standards yearly when they are updated. Others join committees. Regardless of the role a pharmacist plays, it is important to protect the hospital and ensure continued accreditation.
Pharmacists can play an important role on steering committees, particularly those connected with the medication management so important to Joint Commission compliance. Such participation can enable pharmacists to develop hospital pharmacy systems and programs that meet the standards criteria. However, not all pharmacists are able to participate in the time-consuming meetings and long-term implementation discussions required of such committee positions.
Other ways to get involved include suggesting methods of improving medication storage or dispensing that make the processes more effective, safer, or more secure. Pharmacists can also take leadership roles to ensure that hospital pharmacy employees follow compliance standards and programs. Involvement in staff meetings with suggestions, questions, and concerns is also valuable.
Making Joint Commission standards a standing agenda item for regular staff meetings ensures pharmacist involvement. Having regular input into phasing in a requirement or standard is better than having a single meeting immediately before the implementation deadline.
Risk management and hospital quality departments in a hospital can assist pharmacists in getting involved in accreditation. They can answer questions for pharmacists wanting to participate in the boards or committees responsible for the implementation of programs that meet Joint Commission standards.
Collaboration with other departments results in more successful implementation of standards. While what pharmacists think of patient safety goals is important, it is equally important to gain the cooperation of physicians, nurses, dietitians, and other departments of the hospital to make it more likely that all elements of the standards are addressed.
For the pharmacist who wants to have input into how the Joint Commission phases in a standard or requirement, the Joint Commission can provide a communications opening. This can be useful when the Joint Commission offers a feedback period for suggestions concerning additions, proposed changes, and new standards. This is a way to offer a voice to patient safety goals and the final standards that are adopted.
Attending meetings offered by the American Society of Health System Pharmacies or state groups that offer Joint Commission standards updating sessions is another way pharmacists can stay involved in helping their hospital pharmacies stay abreast of current standards and requirements to ensure continued accreditation. List serves have also been proven to be valuable to pharmacists as a networking tool and to learn from others in the profession. They enable pharmacists to become more familiar with the best practices used to meet various hospital pharmacy objectives, including improved safety of medication use included in the 2009 Patient Safety Goal. List serves help pharmacists see the trends and challenges in meeting new compliance standards to better enable them to meet those standards and requirements within their own hospital pharmacy.
Behavioral Healthcare
Behavioral healthcare is one of the most important forms of healthcare around at the moment as a result of the rising number of people that are suffering with behavioral problems. Often confused with mental health, an individual’s behavioral health largely depends on their development and mental blocks rather than specific illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, and other similar conditions. Covering addictions, crisis stabilization, and developmental disabilities, amongst other areas, behavioral therapy comes in a huge variety of forms and thus can be treated in a wide range of ways.
Behavioral therapy can be administered by any number of healthcare facilities and should incorporate a pharmacy management service in order to ensure that all individual patients get exactly what they want and need from their treatment programs. Such services can also help to improve and support the healthcare facilities available to offer behavioral treatment.
Behavioral healthcare is a very wide area of healthcare because it incorporates so many problems and issues. As such, it can be difficult to coordinate treatment with other necessary areas of the healthcare industry. Communication and education are absolutely vital in delivering effective and efficient care. The training of staff should also be of the highest quality because comprehensive knowledge of the area is especially important when trying to provide the best possible treatment plans. This is why accreditation can be absolutely vital in ensuring the best possible care is provided for all of those in need.
At the moment, there are 1,800 behavioral healthcare facilities accredited by the Joint Commission but it is important that more healthcare facilities seek accreditation so that they can raise the standard of treatment they offer. Behavioral therapy should always be of the highest quality to offer a solution to individual problems now and keep the same issues from coming back and causing problems in the future.
http://www.jointcommission.org/AccreditationPrograms/BehavioralHealthCare/bhc_facts.htm
Disease-Specific Care
No two illnesses are the same. They even manifest themselves in individuals differently so every single case has to be taken on its own symptoms and presentation. However, that is not to say that every healthcare facility should not have common goals and best practices for dealing with specific diseases because there should be uniform high standards in all healthcare facilities. The Joint Commission does offer disease-specific care accreditation that is based on performance standards and evidence-based best practice. It is in the interest of all facilities to apply for accreditation in the diseases they deal with because it gives a prestige to their facilities that cannot be bought.
Those healthcare facilities that do seek accreditation or certification stand out above the rest in terms of setting the standards in healthcare. Take the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, for example. That facility now has six disease-specific care certifications to its name, including the very first in the fetal heart, comprehensive eating disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea disease specific care. As such, it is most definitely heading the quest to improve disease care in the United States.
Any healthcare facility with a disease management initiative in place has effectively upped the quality standards offered to patients and that can only be a good thing for the ongoing health of the nation. After all, every individual has a right to comprehensive, appropriate, and high quality healthcare as and when they need it. Furthermore, specializing in disease-specific care can often give a facility greater weight when negotiating with health insurance companies and open up a whole new world of opportunities as far as expanding resources and winning grants goes. This can ultimately lead to better resources so choosing to seek accreditation for disease-specific care is most definitely advisable.
http://www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/NationalPatientSafetyGoals/09_dsc_npsgs.htm
Accreditation Programs
Accreditation programs for healthcare services are more important than ever today. With individuals having a choice of healthcare providers to go to, it is important for each and every single one to maintain the highest standards possible. Not only that, it is also important for the facilities to prove it and they can do so with accreditation programs from The Joint Commission. Displaying the Gold Seal of Approval offers proof of the highest level of quality, care, and service possible.
The Joint Commission has more than 15,000 healthcare organizations on accreditation programs within the United States alone and routinely evaluates their practices, procedures, and standards on a regular basis. As The Joint Commission is independent, their results can be trusted and the performance measure data network that is used for assessment can be trusted. Each healthcare organization has to go through 48 separate measurement systems to ensure that they are performing on all fronts and can offer the highest standard of care possible.
Having been in existence since 1910 in one form or another, The Joint Commission has always been an integral cog in the healthcare standards machine. Initially involved in the standardization of healthcare in hospitals, today The Joint Commission has a system that has evolved to incorporate far more healthcare facilities in numerous other fields. With a board of 29 members from a range of healthcare professions, the experience they can offer is second to none. Nurses, medical directors, physicians, quality experts, ethicists, educators, and health plan leaders all assist in maintaining the highest standards of healthcare so you can rest assured that the accreditation programs actually mean something.
Accreditation programs are currently available for ambulatory care, behavioral healthcare, critical access hospitals, home care, hospitals, laboratory services, long-term care, and office-based surgery. As such, almost every single healthcare facility can take full advantage of accreditation programs now.
http://www.jointcommission.org/AccreditationPrograms/
http://www.jointcommissionreport.org/background/accreditation.aspx
http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/topics/jcaho.asp
http://www.jointcommission.org/AboutUs/joint_commission_history.htm