The Joint Commission’s new Rural Health Clinic Accreditation Program has received initial deeming authority from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The program helps organizations in underserved, rural communities improve the safety and quality of primary care and personal health services.
The new Rural Health Clinic Accreditation Program, available in summer 2024, provides a framework to help rural health clinics standardize how care is delivered. The accreditation program is focused on reducing variation and risk to improve patient outcomes.
Rural health clinics that seek Medicare reimbursement must be accredited by an accrediting organization with deeming authority. Rural health clinics eligible for the new accreditation program must meet all state and federal requirements, including location, staffing and healthcare services requirements.
Additionally, rural health clinics must meet The Joint Commission’s standards based on CMS Conditions for Certification (CfCs) for rural health clinics, with additional specific requirements critical to patient safety and quality. The standards focus on these key operational areas:
- Emergency preparedness
- Health information management
- Infection control
- Medical error mitigation
- Medication management
- Patient assessment and care
- Patient rights
- Performance improvement
- Staff competency
“With deeming authority from CMS, The Joint Commission will be able to work with rural health clinics across the country to help them establish a quality and safety framework for the more than 60 million Americans living in rural areas,” says Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer, The Joint Commission enterprise. “The new Rural Health Clinic Accreditation Program closely aligns with The Joint Commission’s strategic priority area on healthcare equity for all. All patients deserve access to safe and quality care regardless of their location.”
To learn more about Rural Health Clinic Accreditation, please visit The Joint Commission website.
The May 2024 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety (JQPS) includes a study that evaluated the impact of a hospitalist co-management program on clinical outcomes in neurosurgical patients. Medical complications are common among neurosurgical patients and can jeopardize their clinical results, leading to longer lengths of stay, higher costs, and higher readmission and mortality rates.
Researchers at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain, used a quasi-experimental study design to compare a historical control period to a prospective intervention arm.
Also featured in the May issue are:
- Team Relations and Role Perceptions During Anesthesia Crisis Management in Magnetic-Resonance Imaging Settings: A Mixed Methods Exploration (Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire)
- Taming the Wild West of Procedural Safety: Assessing Interprofessional Teams in Non-Operating Room Anesthesia (editorial)
- Preoperative Communication Between Anesthesia, Surgery, and Primary Care Providers for Older Surgical Patients (Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire)
- Development and Evaluation of I-PASS-to-PICU: A Standard Electronic Template to Improve Referral Communication for Interfacility Transfers to the Pediatric ICU (University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, Iowa City, Iowa)
- Refining a Framework to Enhance Communication in the Emergency Department During the Diagnostic Process: An eDelphi Approach (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan)
- Involving the Patient and Family in the Transfer of Information at Shift Change in a Pediatric Emergency Department (Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid)
- Improving Outcomes in Patients Sent to the Emergency Department from Outpatient Providers: A Receiver-Driven Handoff Process Improvement (University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa)
- Implementation of an Interdisciplinary Transfer Huddle Intervention for Prolonged Wait Times During Inter-ICU Transfer (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago)
- Handoffs and Care Transitions: Interviews with Chris Landrigan and Theresa Murray (JQPS)
The May issue is part of JQPS’ 50th anniversary celebration. Each month, a topic of importance to the Journal and The Joint Commission will be highlighted. In addition to the articles described above, the May issue has an open-access list of handoff and care transition articles previously published in the Journal.
For more information, please visit the JQPS website.
During May, The Joint Commission has the following live and on demand free webinar opportunities available to help your organization’s staff keep up to date on standards, performance measures and performance improvement. The registration page for each webinar also includes learning objectives and Continuing Education (CE) credit information.
- Clinical Transformation: Equitable Reduction of Cesarean Birth Rates – During this May 15 live webinar, Mount Sinai Health System staff will present their accomplishments implementing a robust equity dashboard and answer questions during a Q&A segment. This webinar is intended for quality improvement leaders, managers, and point of care staff. Register for the live webinar
- New and revised Workplace Violence Prevention Standards for Joint Commission accredited behavioral healthcare facilities – This on demand webinar provides an overview of the new and revised requirements that are effective July 1, 2024, as well as examples of how the requirements apply and resources to assist organizations in meeting the requirements. This webinar is approved for 1 CE credit until June 10. Register for this on demand webinar
- New and revised requirements for Infection Prevention and Control Chapter (hospital and critical access hospital) – This on demand webinar presents an overview of the Infection Prevention and Control chapter requirements re-write effective July 1, 2024, offers examples for how the requirements apply, and highlights resources available to assist organizations to meet the requirements. This webinar is approved for 1 CE credit until June 18. Register for this on demand webinar
Refreshed Accelerate PI™ Dashboard Reports are available for primary and comprehensive stroke centers to provide updated performance measurement data on the quality measures selected for advanced PSC and CSC certification programs. The refreshed reports contain data through the fourth quarter of 2023.
The dashboards provide performance measurement data on all the measures that PSCs and CSCs report using the Certification Measure Information Process (CMIP). The reports are intended to be a springboard for conversations on performance measures and quality improvement during the certification 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®. Users must select “Certification” on the home screen prior to accessing the menu.