Executive Briefings

Just wanted to share some highlights from the New York Executive Briefings session–possibly the most interesting Executive Briefings I’ve had the opportunity to attend. Lots of intriguing changes on their way from The Joint Commission soon.

* Refocusing surveyors. Ann Scott Blouin, PhD, RN, executive vice president of accreditation and certification operations, told the audience that The Joint Commission has refocused its 500 hospital surveyors to balance their roles as both evaluators and educators/coaches/mentors. According to Blouin, this was received as an invigorating change by “95%” of the surveyors.

* Adaptation. The Joint Commission is using Lean, Six Sigma, and “change acceleration” to change its own culture.  According to Blouin, there is a new focus on customer service and simplification of processes. The Joint Commission has also changed its tactics on criticality–now only direct impact Requirements for Improvement affect accreditation decisions.

They have also made a concerted effort to reduce costs. And, as was discussed earlier this year, there are no more automatic thresholds–there is “no magic tipping point,” said Blouin.

*The Joint Commission has promised to improve the time frame in which hospitals receive their post-survey reports. A recent study within the organization found that hospitals were on average receiving their reports 16.4 days after survey, with massive fluctuations in those time frames–despite a requirement that hospitals receive this report within ten days of their survey (not a ten day average). A new process has been developed reducing the time to develop the report from 38 hours to 4.4 hours and the average time frame to receive the report down to 5.4 days.

* Periodic Performance Review–The Joint Commission is examining changes and enhancements to the PPR based on feedback from the field that the dates of submission are not working.

Okay, more to follow in a bit about the Executive Briefings coverage of the National Patient Safety Goals!