All Entries Tagged With: "Joint Commission"
Joint Commission posts 2010 prepublication standards
It’s that time of year. The Joint Commission posted its 2010 prepublication standards on its Web site earlier this week. Click here to access them.
Check back with the Credentialing Resource Center blog to find out how the updates will affect your medical staff services department.
CMS officially deems Joint Commission’s CAH accreditation
The Joint Commission is also deemed to serve as an accrediting agency for:
- Ambulatory surgery centers
- Durable medical equipment suppliers
- Home health
- Hospice
- Hospitals
- Laboratories
Breaking News: Joint Commission adjusts medical staff standards to comply with CMS regulations
The Joint Commission announced Monday that, as part of its application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a number of changes will be made to the accreditation process.
Many of the changes have resulted in added specificity to existing standards. For example, MS.02.01.01 element of performance (EP) 4 now states that “The majority of voting medical staff executive committee members are fully licensed doctors of medicine or osteopathy actively practicing in the hospital.” Previously, it stated that members of the MEC were fully license physicians.
Other changes have required the creation of entirely new standards and/or EPs. For example, three EPs have been added to MS.03.01.01, which addresses privileging, and two EPs have been added to MS.01.01.01, which addresses the medical staff bylaws and governing board.
All changes go into effect immediately. These requirements will not be scored, however, until July 2009. The Joint Commission has a policy that it will, when possible, give its accredited organizations six months notice for new requirements.
Click here to read The Joint Commission’s official announcement. The new requirements can be downloaded here (http://www.jointcommission.org/NR/rdonlyres/6F82A3A7-22A6-43C4-AF65-8EAC2670541A/0/Communications_HospitalnewandRevised_20081223.pdf).
Is the Proactive Disclosure Service from the National Practitioner Data Bank for you?
I’ve been considering signing up for the Proactive Disclosure Service (PDS) but thought it was too expensive. So I did a little homework and here’s what I discovered: The PDS meets the mandatory hospital query requirements of the Health Care Quality Improvement Action of 1986. It is acceptable to The Joint Commission, Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program, National Committee for Quality Assurance, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities as an alternative to direct querying the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).
Several hospitals that I contacted that are using PDS are very pleased with the streamlined and efficient process. Those that are not using PDS indicate that they consider the service too expensive.
I created a scenario to look at actual costs. The number of practitioners at my make-believe hospital is 1,200. I process 150 applications each year. My average reappointment number is 600. Approximately 70 practitioners add new privileges each year. Based on the current PDS enrollment rate of $3.25 per practitioner, I calculated the following:
| With PDS | Without PDS | |
| Enroll 1200 practitioners/year | $3,900.00 | 0 |
| 150 New applications processed/year | $487.50 | $ 712.50 |
| 600 reappointments each year | 0 | $2,850.00 |
| 70 Added privileges/year | 0 | $332.50 |
| Total | $4,387.50 | $3,895.00 |
One of the benefits of PDS is the notification you receive when a report is filed on one of your enrolled practitioners. You get notified immediately and do not have to wait for reappointment to learn about new actions.
What is not included in the calculation is staff time. How much staff time does it take to query and retrieve reports? Would staff time cost be less than $492.50/year?
Carole La Pine, MSA, CPMSM, CPCS