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JCAHO surveyors fail to identify critical deficiencies

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, July 21, 2004

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Two lawmakers on July 20 introduced legislation that would give the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) more oversight authority in how hospitals are accredited.

That action followed the release of a scathing report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found JCAHO surveyors failed to detect serious deficiencies during some hospital surveys, including infection control problems and fire-safety issues. The GAO compared the results of surveys at 500 hospitals, looking at problems uncovered by the JCAHO versus those found by state surveyors in follow-up validation surveys. It found the JCAHO surveyors failed to identify patient safety deficiencies 31% of the time.

Go to http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04850.pdf  to read the GAO report.

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