WA Update - JCAHO Accreditation (Copyright, Center for Medicare Advaocacy, Inc.)

Health Care Quality Note:
NEW JCAHO Accreditation system for 2004:
"Shared Visions-New Pathways"

Starting in January 2004, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of health care Organizations (JCAHO) will be using a new system to evaluate and accredit health care organizations. This system, called Shared Visions-New Pathways, will involve significant changes to the current system of accreditation. It is designed to sharpen the focus of the accreditation process on operational systems critical to the safety and quality of patient care. Of special interest to advocates and patients will be the new accreditation decision categories and performance reports. These categories and reports will make it easier for patients to evaluate the standard of care provided in local facilities, and to make more informed decisions when choosing a health care organization. These new local health care organizations ratings can be found on the JCAHO Quality Check website.

The Shared Visions-New Pathways system is planned to substantially reduce paperwork and documentation throughout the accreditation process and to introduce a Periodic Performance Review (PPR) of health care organizations on a cyclical basis. The new accreditation process will involve a focused on-site survey of health care organizations using a new ‘tracer’ methodology. This methodology traces the experiences of individual patients to better understand the relationship between an organization’s operational systems and the quality of care actually received by the patient. The new program promises to pay more attention to actual patient experiences and to more actively engage physicians and other direct care-givers in the accreditation procedures.

The Joint Commission on health care Organizations has been the nation’s predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care since 1951. It evaluates and accredits more than 16,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. It is an independent, non-profit organization, governed by a 29 member Board of Commissioners that includes nurses, physicians, administrators, employers, a labor representative, quality experts, and educators. Its corporate membership includes American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, the American College of Surgeons, the American Dental Association, the American Hospital Association, and the American Medical Association.

Alfred Chiplin, of the Washington, DC Office, is the chair of the JCAHO’s Public Advisory Group (PAG). This group, comprised of advocates, researchers, medical practitioners, and academicians, has offered critical review and comment on the development of the new Shared Visions - New Pathways approach, with particular attention to its "Quality Check" feature as a tool for reporting data about health care quality in ways that are understandable and helpful in making decisions about health care.