Joint Commission Releases Annual Safety Report
The Joint Commission’s annual safety assessment was released, “Improving America’s Hospitals: The Joint Commission’s Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2007″. The report describes the performance of hospitals with respect to safety goals and performance measures and compares such in relation to previous years.
The full report is available on the Commission website. Key findings, as detailed in the Executive Summary from the report, are described briefly herein.
Hospitals are making gains in safety and quality improvements, particularly with respect to care delivered to treat patients with heart failure, pneumonia, and heart attack. Patients who undergo surgery are also experiencing improvements. Facilities are scoring ninety percent or higher on most of the National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) requirements defined in 2006 by the Joint Commission. Notably, these are associated with lower healthcare costs, as well as improved quality of life for patients.
The creation of a standardized process for quality measurement, reporting, and improvement has been a key factor fostering this improvement in hospitals. Facilities are required to report on compliance with quality-related activities which are publicly reported by the Joint Commission. The Commission notes the importance of these performance measures in encouraging adoption of quality and safety measures.
All of the progress is noteworthy, but there are still significant improvements to be achieved. Specifically, some of the quality and safety measures which have been introduced more recently still require attention. Those include screening patients with pneumonia for pneumococcus, prescribing ACE inhibitors to patients with heart failure or heart attack at discharge, and providing adequate discharge instructions for heart failure patients.
Also noteworthy are the performance differences between hospitals. Significant variation between the lowest and highest performing hospitals is noted, as well as variation from state to state. All of these areas are possibilities for facilities to improve.
In furtherance of improving overall patient safety and the quality of healthcare delivery, the Joint Commission is continuing to expand the benchmarks. Moreover, these are created in the context of ensuring that facilities are accountable for activities. For example, new measures will be added next year that assess care for both surgery and pneumonia. Integration of assessments for psychiatric care are also being considered. As well, the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospital Survey will also be reported by the Joint Commission.
November 14, 2007 Related topics: Facilities, Partnerships & Consortia, Quality, Safety, Errors