To achieve accreditation, facilities must also improve their internal communications. The right medical professionals need the right test results and must match them to their patients, which is why patient identification is paramount. NNPHI and its member public institutes provide technical assistance and resources to advance accreditation, performance, and quality improvement. The site also includes information about how to join the Public Health Performance Improvement Networkexternal icon, a CDC-supported network for practitioners involved in accreditation and other performance improvement efforts.

Although the criteria are demanding, they are not unachievable nor unreasonable. In addition to looking at process measures, one study of 4221 hospitals, using data from the mid-1990s, found that outcomes for patients with acute myocardial infarction were better in hospitals accredited by The Joint Commission than in nonaccredited hospitals. The differences were small, and there was substantial variation among accredited hospitals. The authors questioned whether accreditation itself improves quality of care, or if better-performing hospitals are simply more likely to choose to become accredited. Electronic health records provide many advantages for nurses, including medication reminders, prevent medicine interactions, immediate access to patient medical history and documentation of clinical care .

First, we examined patient outcomes in accredited hospitals compared with nonaccredited hospitals, finding no statistically significant difference in 30-day mortality for medical or surgical conditions. Accredited hospitals performed slightly better on readmissions measures for medical conditions but not for surgical conditions. Many providers lack the computer systems necessary to track a patient’s care or coordinate it across all the providers a patient may see. Yet, information technology can improve the quality of care patients receive by averting medical errors, improving communication and boosting efficiency. Accreditation organizations may see improved quality of care, fewer preventable health problems, reduced hospitalizations, and lower costs due to medical home concepts like providing integrated care.

The committee perceives a larger issue with continuing education—the lack of relevance of the content of existing courses to providing care that meets the health care needs of the population. There is no formalized process that ensures coverage of the five competencies outlined in Chapter 3. Some licensing boards require that health professionals choose specific courses for maintenance of their license, but more often than not, the choice is wide open, and health care practitioners can select a course that is merely interesting or even just convenient. A review of state licensing laws and related practice acts that define what services health professionals can be licensed to provide was beyond the scope of this report. A key licensing issue that affects the health care workforce and the way it is prepared and used is scope-of-practice acts, implemented at the state level. These acts set forth the parameters of practice activities for the licensee, including what duties can be performed, in what settings the licensee can practice, and what oversight is required.

In the same way as organizations that conform to ACHF guidelines, AHAR facilities and organizations participate in the “Get With the Guidelines® Coronary Artery Disease” program from the American Heart Association. They, too, focus on STEMI patients and have much the same requirements for staff training and continuing education as facilities that meet the criteria of these other cardiac programs. Frasco P, Sprung J, Trentman T. The impact of the joint commission for accreditation ofhealthcare organizations pain initiative on perioperative opiate consumption and recovery room length of stay.

The EHR can help provide the documentation needed so providers can review what happened during these sessions and share this information with their patients. The goal of licensure is to ensure that the licensees have the minimal degree of competency necessary to ensure that public health, safety, and/or welfare are protected. There are usually ongoing requirements that need to be met to maintain the license (CEUs, retests, physical exams, etc.).

Health information systems help gather, compile and analyze health data to help manage population health and reduce healthcare costs. Information systems can improve cost control, increase the timeliness and accuracy of patient care and administration information, increase service capacity, reduce personnel costs and inventory levels, and improve the quality of patient care. For example, suppose an organization reviews patient records and sees that the same test has been repeated several times over a short time. In that case, it may assume that there were communication problems between providers who did not know what other tests had already been done. The purpose of compliance programs is to promote organizational adherence to applicable federal and state law, and private payer healthcare requirements. An effective compliance program can help protect practices against fraud, abuse, waste, and other potential liability areas.

Apart from continuing education and exams, certain pharmacy specialties and occupational therapy offer various paths for recertification, including peer review, self-evaluation, and portfolio review (Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties, 2002; Swankin, 2002). In studies on the perceptions of staff, providers feel that participating in accreditation provides an increased sense of community and concern for aba bank marketing one another, and teamwork and productivity was felt to be improved. By all working toward the same standard, providers can relate to one another in more meaningful ways – by speaking the same language – and learn from each other’s experiences. Standards in healthcare informatics are being set by standardization development organizations and provide a framework for the area they are responsible for.

Additionally, accreditation organizations may review how accessible patient information is. This includes making sure that staff can access documents from any device. Quite simply, hospitals pursue accreditation because it is required in order for their organizations to receive payment from federally funded Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Joint Commission accredits more than 4,000 facilities throughout the United States, which accounts for approximately 78 percent of hospitals.