The Joint Commission has approved its new Infection Prevention and Control (IC) Standard IC.02.04.02 and its elements of performance (EPs) in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) interim final rule regarding COVID-19 vaccinations for health care staff.
The new standard takes effect July 1, 2022, for the following deemed programs:
- Hospitals
- Critical access hospitals
- Ambulatory surgery centers
- Home health agencies
- Home infusion therapy facilities
- Hospices
On Jan. 27, The Joint Commission began surveying to the “Omnibus COVID-19 Health Care Staff Vaccination” interim final rule published by CMS in the November 5, 2021 Federal Register. While changes to Joint Commission standards requirements were under review by CMS, findings related to the COVID-19 staff vaccination regulatory requirements have been scored at Leadership (LD) Standard LD.04.01.01, EP 2, along with the applicable Medicare Conditions of Participation/Conditions for Coverage for each of the deemed programs. This scoring process will continue until June 30, 2022.
View the prepublication standards.
The National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience has issued a new free resource highlighting strategies and tools to decrease burnout among healthcare workers and improve clinician well-being.
“Resource Compendium for Health Care Worker Well-Being” is divided into six essential elements:
- Advance organizational commitment.
- Strengthen leadership behaviors.
- Conduct workplace assessment.
- Examine policies and practices.
- Enhance workplace efficiency.
- Cultivate a culture of connection and support.
Without an emotionally healthy workforce, there can be no safe care. To help address healthcare worker well-being, The Joint Commission has advocated for the removal of barriers to clinicians seeking mental health care, specifically related to mental health history questions asked during the credentialing and licensing process. The Joint Commission also has advocated for health care worker well-being by providing support for the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act.
Other resources include:
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has announced the launch of a public-private partnership of more than 110 organizations around the world declaring their commitment to mitigate climate change and protect human health, well-being, and equity. This expansion of the NAM’s Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector (Climate Collaborative) network was announced as the NAM observed Earth Day 2022.
The Climate Collaborative began in 2021 and provides a neutral platform for its participants to align around collective goals and actions for decarbonization — based on evidence, shared solutions, and a commitment to improve health equity.
To provide an opportunity for organizations to share plans of action, and extend the reach and impact of the work of the Climate Collaborative, the NAM recently called for and collected statements outlining organizations’ current and planned work to address climate change, particularly as they relate to the Climate Collaborative’s four priority areas – health care delivery; health care supply chain and infrastructure; health professional education and communication; and policy, financing, and metrics.
“Climate change is a public health emergency that all of us — the health sector and beyond — must take seriously and tackle together,” NAM President Victor J. Dzau said. “We are thrilled to see over 110 organizations coming together under the Climate Collaborative to achieve better health and equity. We believe that the power of collective action can galvanize a movement to decarbonize across the health sector and increase resilience.”
See the full list of organizations who have joined the Climate Collaborative as Network Organizations.
Time is running out to earn continuing education (CE) credits for watching three on-demand Expert to Expert series webinars.
Part of a six-webinar series, these are replays of live broadcasts from February and March 2022. The series is a partnership between The Joint Commission, Mathematica, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and it focuses on electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) annual updates and new measure reviews. They are free and there is no limit on participation from an organization’s staff.
Three of the webinars are being offered for CE credit until May 30:
- New Measure Review Webinar: Severe Obstetric Complications (PC-07) eCQM
- New Measure Review Webinar: Hospital Harm Hyper- and Hypo-Glycemia eCQMs
- Annual Updates: Safe Use of Opioids – Concurrent Prescribing (OPI-1) eCQM
While the completion date for CE credit on the three other webinars has passed, those interested can still view the webinar replays, program slides, transcripts and related attachments on The Joint Commission’s Expert to Expert series webpage.
- Improvement Insights — Promoting Patient Clinician Conversations to Reduce Cascades of Care: A cascade of care is a seemingly uncontrollable sequence of medical services that is driven by the desire to avoid even the smallest risk of a bad outcome. Cascades prompted by low-value medical tests or incidental findings (on any test) are both common and consequential, often having limited clinical value and potential for harm. We set out to identify what drives cascades and to design an intervention to mitigate them. Our efforts are detailed in the article, “Addressing the Drivers of Medical Test Overuse and Cascades: User-Centered Design to Improve Patient–Doctor Communication,” from the April 2022 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, writes Kathleen L. Mulligan, Ishani Ganguli, MD, MPH, and Robert S. Rudin, PhD, SM.
- Ambulatory Buzz — New Healthcare Worker Well-Being Resource Compendium: After two years working in a pandemic, the national conversation has rightfully shifted to workforce health and well-being. COVID-19 has exposed the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done in this arena, and the time to take better care of the healthcare workforce is now. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) published a Resource Compendium of Key Resources for Improving Clinician Well-Being, writes Pearl Darling, Executive Director, Ambulatory Care Services.