Health Information Management

Topic: 2009 Joint Commission standards revised for ease of use

HIM Connection, July 15, 2008

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On July 1, The Joint Commission announced that it has revised its standards, rationales, and elements of performance to take effect January 1, 2009. Although hospitals won’t see any new requirements, they will see the following:
  • Split or consolidated requirements
  • Renumbered or reordered standards to allow electronic sorting and future standard expansions
  • Single-user licenses to electronic versions of the manuals
  • Color-coded tabs in print manuals to distinguish standards and requirements from accreditation policies and procedures
  • Links from certain elements of performance to associated requirements in other chapters
  • Standards and elements of performance related to a focus area of improvement placed in relevant chapters
These improvements come in the wake of The Joint Commission’s Standards Improvement Initiative, which was launched in 2006 to enhance quality improvement efforts by clarifying standards language, ensuring that standards are program specific, deleting redundant and nonessential standards, and consolidating similar standards.
 
“The Standards Improvement Initiative represents The Joint Commission’s continuous commitment to make the standards clear, relevant, and applicable in the specific healthcare setting in which they are used,” said Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, president of The Joint Commission in a July 1 press release.
 
The revised Management of Information chapter will include the following outline:
  • Planning for management of information
  • Health information
    • Protecting the privacy of health information
    • Capturing, storing, and retrieving data
  • Knowledge-based information
  • Monitoring data and health information processes
For more information, visit www.jointcommission.org/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/nr_sii_gen.htm.



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