All Entries Tagged With: "compliance"
Joint Commission releases document on hand hygiene adherence
I’m sure many of you have had trouble not only getting staff members to comply with your facility’s hand hygiene rules, but also measuring their compliance, which can be just as tricky. Do you measure by observing secretly, by surveying staff members, or by product use? Guidance has finally come in the form of a 232-page document released by The Joint Commission yesterday. The monograph offers a more standardized framework to measuring hand hygiene compliance and offers guidance on when, why and how to measure how well staff members are adhering to proper hand hygiene protocol.
The document includes examples of measurement methods, and came to fruition after a two-year collaboration with a number of organizations, including the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (APIC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID).
Joint Commission releases top sentinel events
In its March issue of Perspectives, The Joint Commission published an update of its top 10 most reported sentinel events. At the top is wrong-site surgery, with 741 cases reported. Out of these reported events, 69% of patients died. The top five events are:
- Wrong-site surgery
- Suicide
- Op/post-op complication
- Medication Error
- Delay in treatment
In the same issue, The Joint Commission listed its top compliance issues for hospitals. At the top is EC.5.20 (ensuring environment complies with the Life Safety Code©). Second is National Patient Safety Goal 2C, (referred to now as NPSG.02.03.01) on the reporting of critical test results. The rest of the top noncompliance standards focus mainly on information management, medication management and environment of care.
Resource for HAI prevention
Readers: As you have been reading in the posts below, hospitals are facing a great amount of pressure to get rid of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). I wanted to share news with you about a new audio conference coming up on March 23rd that will give expert advice on useful solutions to common HAI prevention pitfalls.
Pat Pejakovich and Connie Steed will be presenting. For more details, click here. It’s sure to be a great show.
