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Tip: Improve quality at your facility

Compliance Monitor, January 4, 2012

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Compliance officers don’t treat patients, but they can do much to improve their care. The following measures can safeguard an organization’s quality of care:

• Ensure compliance with state law and Joint Commission requirements for external reporting of adverse events.
• Investigate allegations of falsified medical records related to patient care.
• Learn Joint Commission patient safety requirements. Visit www.jointcommission.org for details.
• Regularly obtain reports within your institution on specific patient safety projects.
• Ensure that an internal reporting system exists for serious adverse events, their causes, and efforts to prevent recurrence. Review these adverse events.
• Become familiar with systems requirements to ensure patient safety, and raise the issue of patient safety implications of new technology.
• Ensure that patient safety issues appear regularly on board and executive meeting agendas.
• Include physicians, nurses, and other professional personnel in safety decisions.
• Investigate patient and family concerns about safety and quality.
• Communicate your institution’s commitment to improving quality and avoiding errors in your compliance communications.

This tip was adapted from The Compliance Officer’s Handbook, Second Edition, published by HCPro, Inc. For more information about this book or to order your copy, visit the HCMarketplace.

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