All Entries Tagged With: "Joint Commission leadership"
Joint Commission releases Sentinel Event Alert
The latest Sentinel Event Alert was released by The Joint Commission this morning urging healthcare leaders to become more involved in the prevention of medical errors at their facilities, as well as to take more responsibility when errors do occur. The alert, titled “Leadership committed to safety,” reflects many of the changes made to the leadership chapter in The Joint Commission’s 2009 Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals (which contains the standards hospitals need to comply with to attain accreditation by The Joint Commission.)
The alert asks leaders to recognize that if there is a failure of some sort in the organization, no matter the result, they are ultimately responsible, and acknowledging that will go a long way toward fixing those errors. Additionally, building a culture of safety is part of preventing medical errors and is something that can only truly happen when leaders buy-in and show that that doing so is not just something they are preaching–it is something they live every single day.
The alert gives some recommendations to leaders. One of these is creating a transparent environment that encourages reporting of near miss events and allows staff members to talk freely about the facility’s trouble spots without being penalized. Similar to this, one recommendation is to support staff members who are involved in a medical error by recognizing that errors are most often the result of system failures, rather than assigning blame to one or two people involved. Allowing involved staff members to participate in the route cause analysis and investigation will help prevent future errors. However, the alert also recommends that leaders recognize the need to create a functioning disciplinary policy for those staff members who exhibit specific, defined behaviors.
You can read the full list of recommendations, as well as the Sentinel Event Alert here.
AHAP conference 2009 leadership session
For those of you who did not get a chance to attend the 3rd Annual AHAP Conference that took place in Las Vegas two week ago, and for those of you who did attend and would like a chance to listen to the leadership session, here is your chance. The session touched on how best to engage your hospital’s leaders in both creating a culture of safety and demonstrating involvement in patient safety to comply with Joint Commission standards.
The presentation, given by Ken Rohde, consultant for The Greeley Company, opened the 2009 conference.
To find a copy of the slides that accompanied the presentation titled “The 2009 Leadership Standards: A Toolbox Approach,” click here.
To listen to the audio recorded at the session, click the link below. You will first hear Jodi Eisenberg, Chair of AHAP, introduce Ken.
For those who attended the conference, we hope you enjoyed it and would love any additional feedback you’d like to offer for how we can improve the conference in the coming years.
Joint Commission appoints new member of the leadership team
Hello, Everyone. Just wanted to mention the latest Joint Commission news: The Joint Commission has announced Mark G. Pelletier, RN, MS, as the organization’s new executive director of Hospital Programs and Accreditation and Certification Services.
Pelletier brings more than 20 years of experience as a healthcare executive, most recently with Condell Medical Center, Libertyville, IL, where he was senior vice president and chief operating officer.
In his role with The Joint Commission, Pelletier will oversee the hospital and critical access hospital accreditation programs, as well as act as director for customer accounts for all accreditation programs, among other responsibilities.
To view the official Joint Commission press release, click here.
