Effective July 1, The Joint Commission approved revisions to its Disease-Specific Care (DSC) Certification requirements for advanced Inpatient Diabetes Care (IDC) available to accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals. These revisions include the following:
- 12 new elements of performance (EPs)
- 11 revised EPs
- 8 EPs that had full or partial content moved to different standards
The new and revised standards are designed to improve safety and the quality of care for inpatients diagnosed with diabetes. The revised requirements reflect the American Diabetes Association’s 2022 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, feedback from Joint Commission customers certified in IDC, and subject matter experts in diabetes care and management. The updates span all five chapters and cover clinical care, information management, performance measurement, program management, and supporting patient self-management.
These changes will apply to all IDC programs seeking initial certification or recertification.
View the prepublication standards.
The Joint Commission’s Comprehensive Cardiac Center (CCC) Certification program has been fully revised to reduce redundancy, clarify requirements, and closely align requirements with other Joint Commission cardiac certification programs for consistency in the review process. The revised requirements will be effective July 1 for CCC-certified hospitals.
View the prepublication standards.
A special Take 5 podcast series interviewing the 2022 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award recipients has launched.
The first episode features a conversation with John F. Di Capua, MD, Chief Executive Officer, and Leo Penzi, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, from North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA).
NAPA received the Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level for its Anesthesia Risk Alert (ARA) program. The program implemented specific mitigation strategies targeting five high-risk clinical scenarios: known or suspected difficult airway, a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 45, pulmonary hypertension, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status 4 or 5, and operating room (OR) fire risk. Each patient is assessed by the anesthesia clinician, and if a risk is identified, the specific mitigation strategy for that scenario is advised to prevent harm.
Penzi and coauthors also penned a Dateline @ TJC blog post — “Anesthesia Risk Alerts: A Novel Approach to Mitigating Risk in the OR” — detailing the ARA program’s methods and results.
The Eisenberg Awards recognize major achievements to improve patient safety and healthcare quality. There are three recipients each year: for an individual; an organization impacting quality care at a national level; and an organization impacting quality care at a local level.
Future episodes will feature the other two award recipients — Jason S. Adelman and Parkland Health.
Listen to the podcast. [21:56]
A free recording of the first National Health Equity Grand Rounds event on Feb. 7 — “History of Racism in U.S. Health Care: Root Causes of Today’s Hierarchy and Systems of Power” — is now available on the American Medical Association’s AMA Ed Hub™.
To access, users will need to create a free AMA Ed Hub account. After logging in, users also can earn continuing education credits by taking the associated quiz with the recording.
The recording focuses on root causes of current structural inequities and past unethical medical experimentation. It also explores how healthcare professionals can work together to understand and redress past harms to create a more equitable healthcare system and society.
Featured speakers included:
- Ms. Harriet A. Washington, MA, award-winning medical writer, ethicist, and author of “Medical Apartheid” and other books
- Dr. Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH, American Medical Association
- Dr. William A. McDade, MD, PhD, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
- Dr. Rupa Marya, Deep Medicine Circle and Do No Harm Coalition
- Dr. Jack Resneck, MD, American Medical Association and UCSF Department of Dermatology
- Dr. David A. Ansell, Rush University Medical Center
For those who attended the live event, National Health Equity Grand Rounds is seeking feedback via a post-event survey.
A second event — “Follow the Money! Understanding Structural Incentives for Inequity in Health Care and Beyond” — is scheduled from 2-3:30 p.m. ET on May 9.
Access the free recording of the first event.
The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association (AHA) have finalized the process for an automatic data transfer from the AHA’s Get with the Guidelines® (GWTG®) – Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) registry directly into the Certification Measure Information Process (CMIP) tool for The Joint Commission’s Comprehensive Heart Attack Center (CHAC) certification program.
This process is available to start with fourth quarter 2022 data.
For the data transfer to take place, an organization needs to ensure that its contract with the AHA permits the sharing of data. Organizations new to joining GWTG-CAD should select the opt-in option within their AHA contract to allow for data sharing with The Joint Commission. Existing organizations should contact certification@heart.org to amend their contract with the AHA to allow for data sharing.
Additionally, many Acute Heart Attack Ready (AHAR) and Primary Heart Attack Center (PHAC) certification programs have already taken advantage of the automatic data transfer process. If an organization has not opted-in yet, it should contact certification@heart.org to amend its organization’s contract with the AHA. Manual data entry should continue until confirmation of when the automatic data transfer will begin.
As a reminder, organizations that allow the automatic data transfer from the registry into CMIP should check their data quarterly to ensure data accuracy.
The data transfer schedule is:
- Quarter 1 — June 15
- Quarter 2 — Sept. 15
- Quarter 3 — Dec. 15
- Quarter 4 — March 15
Data needs to be finalized by 11:59 p.m. ET the night before each data transfer date.
The Joint Commission’s Emergency Management Conference is scheduled for June 20-22, and those who register by March 31 will receive an early bird discount.
The conference — which will be held at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare, 5440 North River Road in Rosemont, Illinois — highlights responses to real-life disasters and threats. Featuring Joint Commission experts, participants will learn about associated accreditation standards and how compliance with those standards can help prepare an organization for emergencies and disasters.
The three-day event also will allow participants to:
- Network with colleagues.
- Hear from nationally recognized experts.
- Get a comprehensive overview of the latest research in the field.
Event organizers also are seeking speakers and presentation proposal abstracts. Information regarding this is available on the registration site under the Call for Abstracts tab.
Looking for a resource for preparing for the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality® certification? The National Association for Healthcare Quality® has published the fifth edition of HQ Solutions™, featuring a full chapter on population health and more takeaways for the quality and safety professional. Learn more.