Behavioral Healthcare Compliance for Accreditation and Regulatory Requirements: Updates and Resources
See behavioral healthcare compliance posts below from our recent newsletters and access our newsletter archive and behavioral healthcare industry links.
A Look at a Suicide Prevention Tracer
For a few years now, TJC surveyors have been conducting suicide prevention tracers when applicable to the setting they are surveying. This is known as a “program specific tracer.” We recently had a client that had this type of tracer during their survey and thought it would be helpful to share their impressions.
New BH Human Resource Standards
The standards in the new Human Resources Management chapter in the 2015 Behavioral Health Care manual went into effect on January 1. Since then, many behavioral health organizations have been reviewing the new standards and their own HR processes to make sure they are compliant and also to see if they can simplify some of those processes. We’ve received some questions from readers and have provided some clarification to these issues.
Patient Safety: Evaluating your Organization’s Culture
The standard is LD.03.01.01 Element requires leaders to “regularly evaluate the culture of safety and quality.” With this standard, TJC is emphasizing that the culture within an organization directly impacts the safety and quality of care provided.
Provision of Care Chapter: Highlights from 2014 TJC Surveys
Findings in the Provision of Care chapter typically account for a significant number of Requirements for Improvement (RFIs) on surveys for both psychiatric hospitals and behavioral health organizations/programs. These findings relate primarily to assessment, treatment...
New Patient Safety Systems Chapter
There is a new Patient Safety Systems Chapter in the 2015 Hospital Accreditation Manual. There are no new standards in this chapter. Rather, it describes how existing standards can be used to build an integrated patient safety system. While this new chapter exists...
Revised Requirements for Psychiatric Hospitals with Deemed Status
Effective February 1, 2015, revised requirements go into effect for psychiatric hospitals that use Joint Commission accreditation for deemed status. TJC added one new requirement and revised nine elements of performance in order to ensure alignment with the CMS...
New Sentinel Event Chapter
Be aware that TJC has revised its Sentinel Event Policy and the Sentinel Event chapter in both the Hospital and Behavioral Health manuals. The revisions were effective January 1, 2015. While the essential components of the Sentinel Event Policy have not changed, there are some new terms and definitions that are important.
Q&A on Behavioral Health Human Resource Standards and Requirements
As reported in our October newsletter, there are revisions to the standards in the Behavioral Health Human Resources chapter (effective January 2015) that will make the process for "credentialing and privileging" of licensed independent practitioners simpler. As our...
National Patient Safety Goal on Alarm Management: Relevance for Psychiatric Hospitals
In January 2014, TJC introduced the National Patient Safety Goal on Alarm Management (NPSG.06.01.01) for hospitals and critical access hospitals. Since psychiatric hospitals are surveyed under the Hospital standards, this National Patient Safety Goal is applicable in...
TJC Behavioral Health Home Certification
Another highlight of the Annual Behavioral Health Care Conference in Chicago last week was the presentation on TJC's new Behavioral Health Home Certification. Several BH organizations have achieved this exciting new certification option! So, here's some information to...