Objective: A key tenet of patient safety programs is the elimination of the “culture of blame.” The On-line Patient Safety Climate Survey was developed to evaluate the corporate safety climate of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD). Methods: The survey tool was designed to measure willingness to report errors, problem-solving processes, and perceptions of the leadership’s concern for patie...

Article: Since 1999 when the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) added pain assessment and management to their regulatory standards, which were implemented in 2001, ―pain management‖ has been elevated in level of importance. The phrase ―pain management,‖ used by health care regulatory agencies, health care organizations, and health care providers has become a b...

The health care worker shortage VOLUME 87, NUMBER 6, BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 8 T he American Hospital Association reports that the greatest threat to America's health care system is the growing shortage of qualified personnel and that the greatest majority of open positions are for nurses. 1 The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) states th...

The importance of assessing and treating pain was made salient recently when the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO, 2000) declared that pain should be regarded as the fifth vital sign. Yet, the literature suggests that problems with undertreatment of pain have only improved modestly. In the 1970s and 1980s, scathing editorials were published by such journals a...

Objective: A high quality of work life (QWL) is essential for organizations to continue to attract and retain employees. In health organizations, such as hospitals, specifically clinical laboratories, QWL has been described as referring to the strength and weakness in total work environment. Health professionals such as clinical laboratories’ employees are exposed to critical influence and pres...

A New Scoring Methodology Project REFRESH (see related articles on pages 3 and 5), the Joint Commission’s multiphase process improvement project, includes a transformative approach for identifying and communicating risk levels associated with deficiencies cited during surveys. This Survey Analysis for Evaluating Risk (SAFER) approach provides organizations with additional information related to...

The Joint Commission recently approved the addition of two new Human Resources (HR) requirements for accredited hospitals, critical access hospitals, and ambulatory care organizations (including those that have achieved Advanced Diagnostic Imaging certification) that provide diagnostic imaging services. The new HR requirements address minimum qualifications for technologists providing computed ...

The system accreditation option for ambulatory care organizations has been revised to require surveying of all sites providing moderate, deep, and general sedation/anesthesia. This revision is effective immediately. Launched in 2006, the system accreditation option is an evaluation approach that awards a single accreditation decision to a “system” (an organization with a corporate office or mai...