The Joint Commission is adding a safety briefing to all accreditation surveys — including for the Home Care Accreditation Program — effective Jan. 1, 2023.
The informal briefing — which is not expected to take more than 5 minutes — allows organizations to tell surveyors about any potential contemporary safety concerns and how the surveyors should respond if the organizations’ safety plans are implemented while surveyors are onsite. Organizations should identify staff who will provide the briefing prior to the surveyor arriving.
The briefing will be incorporated into the arrival and greeting activities held on Day 1 of surveys. Topics that an organization should be prepared to discuss during the briefing include:
- Fire, smoke, or other emergencies.
- Workplace violence, including active shooter scenarios.
- Any specific issues the organization is aware of that surveyors may encounter during their time onsite.
(Contact: James Kendig, jkendig@jointcommission.org)
Several revisions have been made to requirements in the Environment of Care (EC) and Life Safety (LS) chapters in The Joint Commission’s Home Care Accreditation Program. The changes — effective Jan. 1, 2023 — include revised elements of performance (EPs) that clarify and/or strengthen expectations for accredited organizations as they relate to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes.
View the prepublication standards.
A new set of FAQs have been posted to The Joint Commission’s website, addressing COVID-19 guidance for wearing masks in home care settings.
Find out the answer to, “What are The Joint Commission's expectations for implementing the updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance regarding the routine use of masks (also known as source control) to ensure compliance?”
Read the FAQ.
FirstLight Home Care has named The Joint Commission as its national provider of accreditation and certification services. Through the collaboration, The Joint Commission will help FirstLight Home Care advance quality improvement and safety activities for local clients and their families.
FirstLight Home Care locations will have access to The Joint Commission’s survey readiness resources, decision support options, and business intelligence tools.
To achieve Joint Commission accreditation, each FirstLight Home Care location that pursues accreditation must undergo an on-site survey to evaluate its compliance with Joint Commission standards and requirements. This survey assesses the location’s performance in specific areas to help locations provide client care and services in a safe manner. The survey process provides education and guidance to help staff continue to improve performance.
“Joint Commission accreditation is the Gold Seal of Approval when it comes to quality safety protocols and standards,” said Kerri Pendley, Vice President of Strategy for FirstLight Home Care. “We see this as valuable for the FirstLight brand as a whole. It ensures that we as an organization remain committed to a higher standard of service delivery and to continually improving care in the home. Obtaining accreditation means our franchisees hold themselves accountable to those standards for their business, their clients, and the communities they serve.”
The Joint Commission accredits more than 5,000 programs that provide home care services. The Joint Commission’s accreditation and certification process helps healthcare organizations achieve and sustain standardized performance excellence.
“The Joint Commission looks forward to working with FirstLight Home Care to help its locations across the nation achieve and sustain standardized performance excellence through accreditation and certification,” said Brian Enochs, JD, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, The Joint Commission. “As more patients and their families seek home care services, it is critical that safe and high-quality care is provided within the home. Accreditation and certification are a pathway to help FirstLight Home Care locations establish the processes and policies to do so.”
The Joint Commission’s Home Care Accreditation program, established in 1988, accredits programs that provide home care, hospice, personal care and support, pharmacy, home infusion, and durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) services. Additionally, The Joint Commission’s Community-Based Palliative Care Certification program is available to organizations that provide home health or hospice services.
Staff in the Joint Commission’s Home Care Accreditation team have been on the move the past few months.
In September, staff attended the Home Care Association of America’s annual conference. The event — held in Orlando, Florida — had industry leaders in the personal care and support space converge with more than 300 attendees. The Joint Commission was a premium sponsor, as it has a strong partnership with the Home Care Association of America. One focus of the conference was the benefits of Joint Commission Accreditation in improving quality and safety, as well as return on investment for organizations.
In October, staff attended the National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s conference in St. Louis, Missouri, which was attended by many industry leaders in the home health and hospice space with more than 600 attendees. Staff had the opportunity to network with industry leaders and discuss the how partnering with The Joint Commission can improve quality, safety and return on investment.
Learn more about Home Care Accreditation.
The Joint Commission has joined the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health’s Sync for Social Needs coalition, committing to a role in ending hunger and reducing diet-related disease in the United States by 2030.
The Sync for Social Needs coalition brings together leading healthcare organizations and healthcare technology companies that aim to integrate nutrition information within a patient’s electronic health record via a standardized, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based approach.
As the standards-setting organization for more than 22,000 U.S. healthcare organizations, The Joint Commission is committed to working with participants to scale implementation to lower clinician burden to screen for social needs.
The Joint Commission recognizes that the social determinants of health (SDOH) – the conditions in the environments where people live, learn, work, and play – can limit an individual’s access to nutritious foods. Americans who lack access to nutritious food are disproportionately low-income, Black or Hispanic, or live in rural areas. Standardizing SDOH data collection and sharing is a crucial step in understanding and addressing the nature and extent of the problem at hand.
“Health equity is among The Joint Commission’s highest priorities,” said Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, PhD, MSHA, MACP, FACMI, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Joint Commission. “By standardizing the collection and sharing of social determinants of health data, clinicians can be better prepared to tailor a patient’s care to their environment, access, and abilities. The Joint Commission looks forward to collaborating with some of the United States’ leading healthcare organizations to address the social determinants of health that contribute to food insecurity.”
Other member organizations of the Sync for Social Needs coalition include the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Quality Forum, National Committee for Quality Assurance, HL7 International, Epic, Oracle-Cerner, Rush University System for Health, Tufts Medicine, Riverside Health System, SCAN Health Plan, Sanford Health, SSM Health, Higi, BayCare, Geisinger, Meditech, FindHelp, Wellsky, UniteUs, Graphite Health, Saffron Labs, and XanthosHealth.
Learn more about the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and the Sync for Social Needs coalition. Also, furthering its commitment to health equity, The Joint Commission recently released new and revised requirements to reduce healthcare disparities that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
Updated Accelerate PI™ Dashboard Reports are available for home health and hospice organizations to provide updated performance measurement data on a select subset of quality measures. The refreshed home healthcare reports contain data through the third quarter of 2021. The refreshed hospice reports contain data through the second quarter of 2021.
Data in the reports comes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Compare website. The reports are intended to be a springboard for conversations on performance measures and quality improvement during the survey process, as well as a guide to support an organization’s quality journey.
Reports are located under the “Resources and Tools” menu below the DASH heading in Joint Commission Connect®.
An on-demand recording of Home Care Accreditation Essentials, a live event that took place in June, is now available for purchase.
This seminar is designed to provide practical solutions and implementation tips that can be adapted and applied to organizations using The Joint Commission’s Home Care Accreditation requirements. Access to program materials through the Learning Management System will be available until Aug. 1, 2023.
Resources dedicated solely to infection prevention and control (IPC) in nonacute care settings are limited. A new book from Joint Commission Resources (JCR) — “Infection Prevention and Control in Nonacute Care Settings” — highlights IPC challenges in home care organizations.
The book outlines Joint Commission IPC requirements for nonacute care settings and focuses on where organizations struggle, providing timely, accessible solutions. Key topics include:
- Developing a robust IPC program.
- Identifying, assessing, and mitigating IPC risks in the nonacute care setting.
- Cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing medical equipment and other tools.
- Handling infectious disease emergencies.
Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has updated PolicySource. These latest updates to the sample policies and procedures (P&Ps) resource reflect the July 1 standards changes, including utility system disruption response procedures for home care organizations and hospice and compounding staff competency procedures.