Joint Commission Readiness Tools

Since 1951, the Joint Commission has helped raise the standards of health care providers throughout the U.S. by providing evaluation and accreditation for hospitals, clinics, home care service and staffing agencies. The benefits in terms of care quality and public relations make Joint Commission accreditation invaluable to health care providers. Therefore, developing readiness tools that both improve patient care and prepare for ongoing evaluations becomes a necessary process for hospitals and other health care organizations.

Assessing Goals

• Self-evaluation is a crucial element of Joint Commission preparedness. Establishing goals and outlining measurable qualities of care helps providers determine their own level of readiness. The complexities involved with emergency care management, infection control, security, general safety, equipment, medicine and other aspects of patient care and facility maintenance can all be quantified and graded as an aspect of readiness. The aspects of care are determined by a thorough examination of service goals.

Gathering and Interpreting Data

• Throughout a provider network, or throughout the staff of a hospital, clinic or agency, questionnaires help providers grade their own care, facilities and equipment on a simple scale. The results help providers determine whether or not they are meeting their own expectations of care. If the level of care is deemed adequate in all areas, scheduling a future self-evaluation is the next step. If there are a few, or possibly many, areas that need improvement, these aspects of care can be improved before an upcoming Joint Commission evaluation.

Developing New Strategies

• Joint Commission readiness involves predicting elements of patient care that might need attention. The Joint Commission establishes guidelines and expectations that evolve with trends and the growing myriad of health issues. Pinpointing areas of need enables providers to focus on specific areas of care that can be improved or broadened procedurally.

Implementation and Evaluation

• Readiness programs can only be effective if new programs can be effectively implemented and then re-evaluated. Continued evaluation helps track the effectiveness of new strategies in patient care. Each period of evaluation should act as an opportunity to adjust specific aspects of care until future evaluations prove strategies to be effective.