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Responding to the potential for new terrorist attacks in the United States, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has issued a report warning of a brewing cataclysm of underfunding, inexperience, and unpreparedness of emergency response capabilities across America.
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The upcoming switch to unannounced surveys by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations will require a dramatic change in how you prepare for the visit, experts say.
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Two leading health care industry coalitions have launched a universal web site aimed at standardizing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) communications between health plans and the provider community, including hospitals, physicians, billing services, vendors, and clearinghouses.
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The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations announced recently they jointly will offer a Privacy Certification Program for Business Associates.
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One way an organization can ensure repeat business is by developing a strong customer service program that includes a concern management system. An effective concern management system involves five steps. The first step document the concerns was described in last months Quality-Co$t Connection column. The last four steps are described in this months column.
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A quality improvement project in Dayton, OH, achieved a 36% drop in mortality from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among a group of hospitals cooperating on the effort, and participants say it could not have been done without high-quality data collection by peer review and quality improvement professionals.
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Quality improvement and peer review professionals must continue to focus on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance long after the deadlines pass, say experts, who caution that protecting sensitive data will be a constant worry even after you have the appropriate mechanisms in place.
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The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations recent announcement that it will switch to unannounced surveys beginning January 2006 means quality improvement professionals will have to dramatically change the way they think about compliance with standards and ensure that the rest of the organization follows suit.
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Recognizing and effectively responding to impaired physicians is a critical component of a hospitals patient safety initiative. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has an explicit requirement that the hospital medical staff have a process to identify and manage matters related to individual physician health (MS.2.6).