Accreditation

Collaboration, staying current with policies important in complying with PC.2.120

Accreditation Connection, September 7, 2007

Conducting an initial assessment in a hospital-specified time frame should be straightforward, says Elizabeth Di Giacomo-Geffers, RN, MPH, CNAA, BC, a healthcare consultant in Trabuco Canyon, CA.. PC.2.120 is mostly an issue of definition within policy.

"This is the most prescriptive among the more prescriptive of the standards," she says. "It's A plus B equals C."

However, that by itself may make this standard harder to comply with, because every hospital has to follow its policy and the policy, may not be current, or physicians and staff members may not be aware of policy changes; thus, practice does not follow policy, she says.

Another factor to consider is the number of disciplines that exist in a hospital, all of which often have their own definition of what should be included in the initial assessment.

Access the full story in the September issue of Briefings on The Joint Commission; access is free for subscribers, nonsubscribers can sign up for a 30-day free trial of BOJExtra! or purchase a copy of the story for $10 by clicking here.

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