The Joint Commission issued a statement on Feb. 24 regarding Congress passing the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at reducing and preventing suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care providers. The bill also calls for a review of the barriers that health care clinicians face when seeking and accessing care and treatment.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has increased to a devastating degree with the amount of burnout and stress among physicians, nurses and other health care providers,” said Ana Pujols McKee, MD, Interim President and CEO, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, The Joint Commission. “While we share in the deep sadness of Dr. Breen’s death from across the health care community, it is not without hope for positive change. It is critical that we increase awareness and provide resources to support our nation’s health care providers as they continue to work tirelessly into the third year of the pandemic.”
Research has shown that clinicians fear seeking mental health treatment because of questions related to their mental health history. To address this, The Joint Commission has issued:
- A statement on removing barriers to mental health for clinicians and other providers by clarifying that Joint Commission accreditation standards do not require health care organizations to ask about past mental health conditions or treatment during the credentialing process.
- A Quick Safety on promoting psychosocial well-being of health care staff during crisis.
- A Sentinel Event Alert on the well-being of health care staff.
Clinician performance feedback is widely used in quality improvement. However, there is a lack of practical guidance describing the process of developing performance feedback systems.
A new study in the March 2022 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety — “Using Participatory Design to Engage Physicians in the Development of a Provider-level Performance Dashboard and Feedback System” — details how the University of California, San Francisco used participatory design methodology to develop a performance dashboard and feedback system.
Participatory design is a methodology that engages and incorporates end-user feedback throughout the design process to ensure the product supports end-user goals, fits organizational context, and invites positive attitudes for change. Twenty hospitalist physicians participated in a series of six design sessions and two surveys. Each session and survey systematically addressed key components across the continuum of the feedback system, including design, metric selection, data delivery and incentives. The researchers then used the Capability Opportunity Motivation and Behavior (COM-B) model to identify behavior change interventions to facilitate engagement with the dashboard.
The findings suggest that dashboard and feedback systems developed using participatory design can effectively engage physicians. It also shows that physicians prefer:
- Collaboration over competition.
- Internal motivation over external incentives.
- Dashboard used to aid clinical practice over punitive uses.
- Clinical and patient-centered metrics over financial or throughput metrics.
The study authors recognized that while each health group has distinct needs, the process they described can provide insight and serve as a guide for designing a provider-level feedback system.
Also featured in the March issue:
- Performance of a Commonly Used Pressure Injury Risk Model Under Changing Incidence (Stanford University School of Medicine, California)
- Changes in Rates and Modality of Interpreter Use for Pediatric Emergency Department Patients in the COVID-19 Era (Seattle Children’s Hospital, Washington)
- Improving Antibiotic Stewardship for Inpatients with Reported Beta-Lactam Allergies and Limited Access to Penicillin Skin Testing (New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, New York)
- Medication Errors in Overweight and Obese Pediatric Patients: A Narrative Review (The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore)
- Increasing Telehealth Access to Care for Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic at an Academic Medical Center: Video Visits for Elders Project (VVEP) (University of California, San Francisco)
- Hospital at Home: Setting a Regulatory Course to Ensure Safe, High-Quality Care (commentary)
Access the Journal.
A Continuous Customer Engagement (CCE) webinar focused on comprehensive stroke centers is scheduled for March 30.
In December 2020, The Joint Commission – in collaboration with the American Heart Association – launched Accelerate PI™ dashboards for Joint Commission-certified primary (PSCs) and comprehensive stroke centers (CSCs). Utilizing standardized stroke measures, Accelerate PI dashboards help to identify important quality targets and assist organizations in identifying where their performance lags and leads. Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSTK) measure quality measure CSTK-09 Arrival to Skin Puncture was identified as one in which there is opportunity to improve.
The aim of this webinar series is to provide an opportunity for all CSCs to learn from peers that have exceled at this topic. Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center will share its best practices and lessons learned in achieving and sustaining impressive outcomes.
At the end of the session, participants should be able to:
- Apply concepts learned about evidence-based best practices regarding median times from hospital arrival to the time of skin puncture to access the artery (e.g., brachial, carotid, femoral, radial) selected for endovascular treatment (EVT) of acute ischemic stroke.
- Identify common performance and outcome challenges in median times from hospital arrival to the time of skin puncture to access the artery (e.g., brachial, carotid, femoral, radial) selected for endovascular treatment (EVT) of acute ischemic stroke.
- Prepare to implement at least one new best-practice to improve median times at the learner’s facility.
The webinar also offers 1.0 Continuing Education (CE) credit for those who:
- Individually register for the webinar.
- Listen to the live webinar in its entirety. Only those listening live during the session will be eligible to receive credit.
- Complete a post-program evaluation/attestation. The program evaluation/attestation link will be sent to your registered email after the webinar.
The webinar recording and slides will be available approximately two hours after the session concludes.
A new book from the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) profiles 33 women physicians who shared stories of overcoming obstacles in their careers. “Lessons Learned: Stories from Women Physician Leaders” was edited by Deborah M. Shlian, MD, MBA.
Ana Pujols-McKee, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, The Joint Commission authored Chapter 31 of the book, titled, “You Are Worthy of Your Dreams.”
“This new book from AAPL is especially unique because it follows women physicians over three decades,” stated Peter Angood, MD, President and CEO of AAPL, in a press release. “These women come from all walks of life, have faced and overcome challenges, and have demonstrated great creativity in their career choices. The book shows a collective pride in what women physician leaders have accomplished, validation of choosing a non-traditional career path, and fulfillment in having chosen medicine as a rewarding career that makes a difference.”
Purchase the book.
Dateline @ TJC — Addressing Intimate Partner Violence: One issue that surfaced in the public eye during the COVID-19 pandemic was the increase in domestic violence reporting in some communities. Some systems reported increased child abuse, as well as intimate partner violence (IPV), which occurs between people married, formerly married, dating, formerly dating, or who may have had a casual date or intimate experience, writes Catherine Cerulli, JD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Rochester.