Joint Commission (JCAHO) Compliance Made Easier
How can I make the Joint Commission Accreditation process easier?
Healthcare industry employees—in hospitals, nursing homes, office-based surgery practices, home care providers, and laboratories—are overwhelmed on a daily basis with the importance of keeping up with and learning new processes and procedures that save lives. There are only so many hours in a day. So, why squeeze another thing into an already busy day? Where can you find the extra time and resources to gain Joint Commission (formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)) accreditation?
Joint Commission is not the only accreditation agency in the Healthcare industry, but it is by far the largest and most prestigious. Receiving Joint Commission accreditation gives hospitals and other healthcare providers a leg up in the process of providing their consumers the highest level of service.
Preparing for a Joint Commission survey can be a challenging process for any healthcare provider. At a minimum, a hospital must be completely familiar with the current standards, examine current processes, policies and procedures relative to the standards and prepare to improve any areas that are not currently in compliance. To obtain accreditation, healthcare organization staff members must be able to demonstrate proficiency across specific job competencies and receive performance evaluations based on specific job descriptions. The hospital must be in compliance with the standards for at least four months prior to the initial survey.
SuccessFactors easy-to-use healthcare industry solution, HealthPractices, helps you simplify the Joint Commission survey process. Our Job Description Manager (JDM) provides you with more than 18,000 unique competencies and 800 specific healthcare job descriptions in one centralized database. This allows administrators and managers to centrally store, update, approve, track and view job descriptions in real time—crucial in ensuring a swift response to Joint Commission surveys. JDM also allows you to automatically populate annual review and competency assessments to provide a more comprehensive picture of how your employees are performing, thus allowing the storage of necessary Joint Commission requirements in one location.
In addition to a standard dictionary, we also include a Medical Spell Checker that includes approximately 200,000 medical and scientific terms to enhance your appraisal content. You’ll be able to modify the templates to fit your organization’s specific job description and evaluation needs. Used with our Business Execution software solution, your organization will be able to align and communicate corporate strategic goals, track employee performance to ensure that critical goals for success are being achieved, and create irrefutable audit trails for Joint Commission compliance.
Why is Joint Commission accreditation so important?
Top reasons for seeking Joint Commission accreditation are:
- Provides a competitive edge in the marketplace.
- Educates staff regarding best practices and improves business operations, reducing risks.
- Provides professional advice and boosts the quality of staff recruitment and development.
- Improves quality, safety and overall healthcare experience for patients, families and staff.
- Recognized by insurers and third parties and may fulfill regulatory requirements in select states.
From this list, you begin to gain insight into a few key benefits of Joint Commission accreditation. Administratively, it increases your ability to recruit and retain high-performing clinical and administrative staff that will provide patients the quality care they expect and deserve. Additionally, it is a valuable marketing tool for attracting consumers who seek only “accredited” providers for their healthcare needs, thus keeping healthcare organizations in business.
The objective of the Joint Commission’s survey is not only to evaluate the hospital, but also to provide education and guidance that will help staff continue to improve the hospital's performance. Prospective patients who are looking for the highest-quality care possible will find research supporting the assumption that Joint Commission accredited hospitals have a marked improvement in quality of care when compared to non-accredited hospitals. Additionally, a majority of state governments recognize Joint Commission accreditation as a condition of licensure and receiving Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement. Some general and professional liability insurance companies strongly encourage external accreditations. Prior to billing Medicare or Medicaid, they will ask for accreditation results (CMS—Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Conditions of Participation and / or a certificate of compliance.
The survey process evaluates actual care processes by tracing patients through their care cycle, analyzing key operational systems that directly impact the quality and safety of patient care. All healthcare organizations, other than laboratories, are subject to a three-year accreditation cycle. The Joint Commission will provide the organization's accreditation decision, the date that accreditation was awarded, and any standards that were cited for improvement. Organizations deemed to be in compliance with all or most of the applicable standards are awarded the decision of Accreditation.
There are only so many hours in every day. By streamlining your preparation for the Joint Commission accreditation process you can spend more time focusing on what’s really important—your core business objective to find high-performing employees to provide high-quality healthcare to all.
About SuccessFactors
SuccessFactors is the global leader in business execution software. The SuccessFactors Business Execution Suite improves business alignment and people performance to drive breakthrough results for companies of all sizes. More than 8 Million+ users and 3000+ companies leverage SuccessFactors every day. To learn more, visit: www.successfactors.com.
