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Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)


Self Description

December 2002: "The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. An independent, not-for-profit organization, JCAHO is the nation's predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Since 1951, JCAHO has developed state-of-the-art, professionally based standards and evaluated the compliance of health care organizations against these benchmarks....JCAHO employs more than 1,000 people in its surveyor force, at its central office in Oakbrook Terrace, and at a satellite office in Washington, DC."
http://www.jcaho.org/about+us/index.htm

Third-Party Descriptions

June 2009: 'It’s not for everyone, but “medical tourism” is less risky than it used to be. Since 2000, Joint Commission International, the international wing of an organization that accredits U.S. hospitals, has okayed 110 facilities overseas. Also, private companies that do their own screening have sprung up to guide patients through the process. One of those, MedRetreat, visits each hospital it uses and guarantees that the best surgeons will be on the case.'

http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/rip-offs/10-things-your-plastic-surgeon-wont-tell-you-21166/

December 2008: "Any effort to maintain national standards is left largely to Medicare and the Joint Commission, a nonprofit group based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., which along with state health departments certifies that hospitals are operating safely."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08hospital.html

May 2008: "The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, and groups like the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association have adopted standards encouraging disclosure. Guidelines vary, however, and can be vague. While many hospitals have written policies to satisfy accreditation requirements, only a few are pursuing them aggressively, industry officials said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18apology.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Joint Commission Resources (JCR) Organization Jul 30, 2005
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Qualitycheck.org Source Aug 5, 2004
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Dr. Mark R. Chassin M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H. Person Dec 9, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Dr. Dennis S. O'Leary MD Person

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 17, 2009 Why Don’t Doctors Wash Their Hands More? (Doctor and Patient)

QUOTE: Over the last 30 years, despite countless efforts at change, poor hand hygiene has continued to contribute to the high rates of infections acquired in hospitals, clinics and other health care settings.

 New York Times
Jun 20, 2009 At V.A. Hospital, a Rogue Cancer Unit

QUOTE: For patients with prostate cancer, it is a common surgical procedure: a doctor implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the disease. But when Dr. Gary D. Kao treated one patient at the veterans’ hospital in Philadelphia, his aim was more than a little off. Most of the seeds... landed in the patient’s healthy bladder... It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear.

 New York Times
Jun 05, 2009 10 Things Plastic Surgeons Won't Tell You

QUOTE: 1. “I trained a whole weekend to learn this procedure"....2. “I make a mint off other surgeons’ mistakes”....3. “Sure, I can turn back the clock, but it just starts ticking again"....4. “You’d be better off spending this money on a good therapist.”

 Smart Money
Mar 14, 2009 Report Cites Safety Issues at Md. Hospital for Clergy

QUOTE: report by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said St. Luke Institute has left potentially suicidal patients in unsafe environments...

 Washington Post
Dec 08, 2008 The Evidence Gap: Weak Patchwork of Oversight Lets Bad Hospitals Stay Open

QUOTE: in late 2006 a state commission recommended that it be scaled back and merged with another hospital. The state’s inability to follow through on that plan for University provides a stark example of how hard it can be — not just in New York, but around the nation — to close or shrink hospitals, even when there is evidence they are providing costly and below-average care.

 New York Times
May 18, 2008 Doctors Say ‘I’m Sorry’ Before ‘See You in Court’

QUOTE: For decades, malpractice lawyers and insurers have counseled doctors and hospitals to “deny and defend.” Many still warn clients that any admission of fault, or even expression of regret, is likely to invite litigation and imperil careers. But with providers choking on malpractice costs and consumers demanding action against medical errors, a handful of prominent academic medical centers, like Johns Hopkins and Stanford, are trying a disarming approach.

 New York Times
Apr 02, 2007 Some Hospitals Call 911 to Save Their Patients

QUOTE: As the number of doctor-owned surgical hospitals grows, federal and state officials now acknowledge that the government rules may be too vague about the emergency abilities a hospital must have in place. Regulators are particularly concerned about the very small hospitals that focus on only a few kinds of surgery but perform operations that frequently require an overnight stay. While Medicare’s rules currently say a hospital must “meet the emergency needs of patients in accordance with acceptable standards of practice,” the details are left largely to the hospital’s discretion. Federal and state officials say they are now reviewing the guidelines to toughen the rules and make them more specific.

 New York Times
Apr 25, 2006 Surprise Visits

QUOTE: Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)... is no longer alerting institutions weeks before a routine visit...most inspections have been regularly scheduled triennial events for which a hospital staff spent months preparing.

 Washington Post
Dec 30, 2005 Reused Devices, Surgery's Deadly Suspects: Patients May Be Exposed to Rare Brain Disease From Prior Operations

QUOTE: Surgical devices used during brain surgery frequently are reused on other patients after being sterilized. But medical experts say traditional sterilization methods do not always eradicate the infectious agent...

 Washington Post
Jul 25, 2005 Accreditors Blamed for Overlooking Problems: Conflict of Interest Cited Between Health Facilities, Group That Assesses Conditions

QUOTE: ...the joint commission's practices raise questions about potential conflicts of interest and the rigor of its hospital surveys... About 99 percent of the hospitals reviewed by the joint commission win accreditation, and in recent years it has missed glaring examples of poor care in which patients have been injured or killed...

 Washington Post
Jul 24, 2005 Hospitals study when to apologize to patients

QUOTE: Harvard Medical School's major teaching hospitals are considering adopting a sweeping disclosure policy that would establish detailed procedures for physicians to openly acknowledge medical errors and other bad results to their patients...

 Boston Globe
Jul 21, 2005 Studies Fault Hospitals on Basics: Wide Variations In Quality of Care Are Found

QUOTE: U.S. hospitals are improving the quality of the care they provide, but even the best fail too often to offer the right treatments, such as immediately giving aspirin to victims of heart attacks and properly administering antibiotics to pneumonia patients...

 Washington Post
Apr 24, 2005 Hospitals Services Performed Overseas: Training, Licensing Questions Raised

QUOTE: NightHawk and several other companies providing the offshore radiology services say they hire only U.S.-trained doctors who are licensed in every state where they have clients and credentialed at the hospitals they serve. But policing the services remains a concern.

 Washington Post
Jul 27, 2004 Checking Up on Hospitals: New Web Site Rates Facilities' Performance in Heart, Pregnancy, Pneumonia Care

QUOTE: The nation's largest health care accrediting organization has launched a Web site that lets consumers compare patient care at hospitals statewide and nationally.

 Washington Post
Feb 25, 2003 Lack of Reporting Thwarts Efforts to Halt Deadly Infections

QUOTE: ...these arguments (of deaths due to medical errors vs. hospital infections) obscure a more fundamental problem: the lack of mandatory reporting of hospital-acquired infections.

 Washington Post
Dec 03, 2002 No End to Errors: Three Years After a Landmark Report Found Pervasive Medical Mistakes in American Hospitals, Little has Been Done to Reduce Death and Injury

QUOTE: There's a lot of talk [about medical errors--Ed.], but no significant progress. The reasons, observers say, include fierce resistance by doctors and hospitals to mandatory reporting and other IOM recommendations, a lack of oversight by the federal government and the absence of an effective consumer lobby.

 Washington Post