Supporting Safer Healthcare

Prior to providing care, treatment, and services, the hospital obtains or renews orders (verbal or written) from a licensed independent practitioner. Sounds like a no-brainer right?  How difficult can it be for hospitals to comply with such a simple standard? Turns out, pretty difficult.  Nearly every hospital struggles to comply with at least one aspect of that simple-sounding [...]

The Joint Commission has released their 2010 Pre-Publication Standards for all accreditation programs.  The Hospital Standards (290 pages) feature an expanded Leadership chapter with a focus on patient safety.  For example, LD.04.04.05 (page 90), which includes 14 Elements of Performance, states "The hospital has an organization-wide, integrated patient safety program within its performance improvement activities." EP [...]