If it was good enough for Socrates, it’s good enough for me. Socrates, a champion of independent thinking, believed one of the best ways to learn was through dialogue with others. Over the past two years, I have learned so much from the comments and suggestions of the Health Care Staffing Services Advisory Council. Thank you for the fine work you have done on behalf of The Joint Commission and the health care staffing industry:
- Greg Allen, Cirrus Medical Staffing, Charlotte, NC
- Susan Collier, CompHealth, Salt Lake City, Utah
- Zak Elgamal, American Surgical Assistants, Inc., Houston, Texas
- Marcia Faller, AMN Healthcare, Inc., San Diego, Calif.
- Karen Fields-Flaster, HRN Services Inc., Beverly Hills, Calif.
- Melissa Knybel, Clinical One, Wakefield, Mass.
- Patricia Layton, Medical Staffing Network, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla.
- Patricia O'Malley, White Glove Placement, Inc., Brooklyn, NY
- Sally Porter, Supplemental Health Care, Buffalo, NY
- Roxane Rose, Magnolia Medical Resources, Dallas, Texas
- Frank Shaffer, Cross Country Staffing, Boca Raton, Fla.
- Roxanne Stanard, Aureus Medical Group, Omaha, Neb.
- Hallie Van Hoozen, ABC Health Care, Inc., Maumee, Ohio
- Diana Wright, The Right Solutions, Tontitown, Ark.
I look forward to your continued participation!
Michele M. Sacco, M.S.
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Beginning in April, Quality Reports for Joint Commission certified health care staffing firms will be available on the Quality Check™ website. Go to www.qualitycheck.org in late April to view your report. Quality Reports will feature a user-friendly format and include:
- Certification decision and effective date
- Last full review and last on-site review dates
- Demographic information
- Certified locations of care
- Commentary (optional)
Searches can be conducted by name, zip code or state. For more information about Quality Reports, contact your account representative, (630) 792-3007.
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Here is some basic information to help your certified staffing firm get ready to submit performance measure data to The Joint Commission.
- The submission tool will be available on The Joint Commission Connect extranet site in April. All certified health care staffing firms will receive an e-mail message when the submission tool goes live.
- Staffing firms should continue to keep manual data records until the tool is active and they can submit their data electronically. The data must be submitted electronically—no paper forms—via The Joint Commission Connect extranet site.
- Certified staffing firms will be required to submit data for each of the three standardized measures to The Joint Commission within 45 days of the close of each calendar quarter.
- Data submission is retroactive to the first quarter of 2008; staffing firms must submit their monthly data points starting from January 2008.
- Monthly data points are the numerator and denominator values for each of the three standardized measures. The computer will calculate the rate/measure result.
- Click here to access the extranet site. If you do not have a log-in or password, contact your firm’s CEO or program director. (As a reminder, the submission tool will become available in April.)
- Once you’ve logged onto the extranet, under Application for Certification, click on Certification Measure Information Process.
- For more information, contact your account representative at (630) 792-3007.
If you still feel overwhelmed, tune in to a free audio conference for staffing firms from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. C.T., Thursday, April 10. The Certified Measure Information Process will be discussed. Click here to register.
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Keep current with the latest Joint Commission news by adding your contact information to The Joint Commission extranet, The Joint Commission Connect. Here’s how to access the certification extranet and update the contact list:
- Go to http://www.jointcommissionconnect.org/.
- Enter your login and password.
- Select the certification extranet link.
- In the “Update Organization Contacts” section, add appropriate contact information including e-mail addresses.
- Click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Organization Contacts” screen, and then click on the “Submit” button.
- A new, individual login and password will be e-mailed to each new contact.
If you have questions, contact your account representative at (630) 792-3007.
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The Joint Commission began annual subscription billing for certified health care staffing firms on January 1. Subscription billing replaces the previous fee-for-service approach, and allows staffing firms to spread certification costs over the two-year certification cycle. Subscription billing involves annual billing at a base rate and an add-on fee to cover all review-related direct costs in the year that the on-site review is conducted.
A typical health care staffing firm (with fewer than 150 full-time employees, less than 10 disciplines and operating in less than 25 sites) can expect its annual fee to be approximately 15-30 percent of the total cost for certification. The onsite fee will be approximately 40-70 percent of the total cost of certification. For details, contact The Joint Commission Pricing Unit, (630) 792-5115, or PricingUnit@jointcommission.org. Read the FAQs about subscription billing.
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Joint Commission certified staffing firms want more information about complying with specific standards, according to the recent readership survey. In addition to standards information, readers would like more articles about review preparation and National Patient Safety Goals. Of the 172 survey respondents, 84 percent always or sometimes read Staffing Certification News.
Respondents would also like to read more on how to become certified, performance measure data, and challenging standards.
“We’re pleased that Staffing Certification News is filling a need for our customers,” says Michele Sacco, executive director. “Look for improvements based on the feedback we’ve received and keep reading!”
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Michele Sacco, executive director, has been appointed to AcademyHealth’s Task Force on the Ethical Recruitment of Foreign Educated Nurses. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, AcademyHealth has launched an initiative to examine the growing practice of international nurse recruitment that has emerged in response to the U.S. nursing shortage. The task force is charged with reaching consensus on draft ethical standards of practice. “I’m excited to be a part of this process, and impressed with the knowledge, experience and dedication of the group,” says Sacco.
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Q: If our hospital is using a Joint Commission certified staffing firm to provide certified registered nurse anesthetists, can we delegate credentialing and primary source verification to the staffing firm?
A: Joint Commission certified health care staffing firms must complete the credentialing process for all clinical staff members that are placed. The hospital that contracts with the certified staffing firm may use the credentialing process of the staffing firm for verification of the placed staff if the staffing firm meets the requirements of a credentials verification organization. The CVO requirements can be found in Appendix B of the health care staffing certification manual. The hospital should communicate with the staffing firm to determine the completeness, timeliness and accuracy of the information being provided. Otherwise, the hospital must perform its own credentialing process. In addition, while the hospital does not need to maintain the credentialing records of the placed staff members, those records should be available as needed from the staffing firm, for example, during a survey.
To submit a question for an upcoming “Ask the expert,” send an e-mail to abrown@jointcommission.org.
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To request an additional Joint Commission certification certificate for a separate site, send an e-mail to certificates@jointcommission.org. Include your firm’s HCO number and the name of the additional site. Or, contact your account representative. Additional charges apply.
The Joint Commission’s Health Care Staffing Services Certification program is hosting complimentary breakfast briefings for staffing firms that are not yet certified. The briefings run all year throughout the country. Click here for a schedule.
Health Care Staffing Certification Workshop
June 12, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.
To register, contact JCR Customer Service, (877) 223-6866, or http://www.jcrinc.com/.
The Joint Commission will exhibit or speak at the following conferences.
- American Organization of Nurse Executives, Seattle, Wash., April 26–28
- National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations, Memphis, Tenn., April 30–May 3
- South Carolina Hospital Association, Nashville, Tenn., May 19-20
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Michele Sacco, executive director
(630) 792-5285 or msacco@jointcommission.org
M.J. Hampel, senior associate director
(630) 792-5720 or mhampel@jointcommission.org
Stacy Veitengruber, business development specialist
(630) 792-5779 or sveitengruber@jointcommission.org
Standards Interpretation - (630) 792-5900
Pricing - (630) 792-5115
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