Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals

Accreditation Manualfor Hospitals. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, Chicago, lU., 1996. 

ENA supports the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations standards that advocate emergency management based on the stages of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. ENA supports implementing a hazard vulnerability analysis that is reviewed annually. 

Fennigkow, L. and Lagerman, B. Medical Equipment Management. 1997 EC/PTSM Series/No. 1 Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations, 1997, pp. 47-54. 

Blood cultures must be obtained in all patients hospitalized with pneumonia to comply with Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) pneumonia guidelines. Positive blood cultures are present in about 1 % to 20% of patients with CAP. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has incorporated pneumococcal and influenza immunization rates into some of their quality standards. Patients admitted to a hospital for community-acquired pneumonia should be screened for, offered, and vaccinated with pneumococcal and influenza vaccines prior to discharge if not previously administered. In physicians office practice, all persons over 65 years of age who have been hospitalized in the past year should be screened for, offered, and vaccinated with pneumococcal and influenza vaccines if not previously administered. Both of these standards will affect payment if the standard is not met. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has also incorporated these standards into their accreditation reviews of health care facilities. 

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards require a nutrition screening typically within 24 to 72 hours of hospital admission. Patients determined not to be at risk for malnutrition should be reevaluated every 7 to 14 days. Patients determined to be at risk for malnutrition need a nutrition assessment and care plan. 

Emergency Management Standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO). (2001). Comprehensive accreditation manual for hospitals. 

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations also defines a third level of crisis—a catastrophe. A catastrophe is considered a disaster in which the community and hospital are overwhelmed and isolated for 3 or more days. This is exemplified by the Sumatra tsunami in 2004 and by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 (Berger, 2006). For our purposes, this category will be considered a disaster. 

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (2001a). Revised environment of care standards for the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals. Joint Commission Perspectives, 21(12), suppl 2. 

Certainly, the technical expertise to develop crude devices, including improvised nuclear devices, exists worldwide (4). Whereas terrorist attacks with SRDs and RDDs would cause a limited number of casualties, attacks with improvised or sophisticated nuclear weapons, if used in a populated area, have the potential for mass casualties and disruption. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has already directed hospitals to plan and prepare for a terrorist attack involving nuclear weapons, specifically asking them to (2) ... 

Collaborative work toward error prevention with the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the National Coordinating council on Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP), the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), and dozens of other consumer and professional organizations. 

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)—JCAHO began providing accreditation services by focusing on hospitals more recently, its services have been expanded to provide accreditation services for a wide continuum of healthcare providers. In fact, JCAHO shifted its accreditation focus toward a continuous quality improvement (CQI) process and incorporated outcomes measures into the standards. Information on JCAHO and its standards can be found at www.jcaho.org. 

Joint Commission on Accreditation of health care Organizations (JCAHO) a private, not-for-profit organization that evaluated and accredits hospitals and other health care organizations providing home care, mental health care, ambulatory care, and long term care services. 

Hospitals receive not only field-decontaminated patients but also "walk-ins" who may have bypassed field decontamination. Despite Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards calling for hospitals to have hazardous materials (Hazmat) plans and conduct Hazmat training, two recent reviews have suggested that most hospitals in the United States are ill prepared to treat chemically contaminated patients. 

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations—Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals—Official Handbook, Library of Congress Number 96-076721,1998, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181. 

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