This week, we had our triennial unannounced visit from the Joint Commission. I think of this visit as a checkup where surveyors examine how reliable we are in our patient care.
The concept of reliability simply means that “what should happen happens, and what should not happen doesn’t.” To get to our vision of being the community-based system of care that can deliver to every patient, every time, the care that we would want for our own loved ones, we have to move towards 100% reliability. For example, a highly reliable medication delivery system always has the correct dose of a needed medication given to the correct patient at the correct time. To get to very high reliability – with error rates close to zero – an organization must find the potential causes of failure, the so-called “holes in the Swiss Cheese,” before they can line up to cause a miss that might lead to patient harm.
The Joint Commission is a regulator that exists to protect patients. The surveyors’ job is to find our areas of risk – places of lower reliability and opportunities for failure. We welcome the survey. Why? Because outside eyes may find vulnerabilities that we don’t see. The review helps us improve our care. We don’t “get ready” for the Joint Commission. We must always be ready because people’s loved ones come here for care every day.
Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a standard of quality. We are grateful for the work of the surveyors.
Last year, we achieved the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award because of our commitment to system design that makes it easier for our outstanding staff to care for patients. The Joint Commission survey is just another assessment to see how we are doing. I am very proud of our people because of their excellence and their commitment to well-designed systems. They live by our standard work to drive us towards our vision!
Finally, I want to wish everyone in our GBMC family a safe and happy Independence Day. July 4th marks the birthday of our great country…the land of the free and the home of the brave. Let's take some time to reflect on what we can each do to make our country even better than it is today.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking time to read "A Healthy Dialogue" and for commenting on the blog. Comments are an important part of the public dialogue and help facilitate conversation. All comments are reviewed before posting to ensure posts are not off-topic, do not violate patient confidentiality, and are civil. Differing opinions are welcome as long as the tone is respectful.