By Request, Continuum of Care Tracers Addressed

• 8/25/2010
• Author: Janet Pimentel
• Category: The Source Blog
• 5243 Views
• 0 Comments
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I enjoyed meeting several of our readers when I attended The Joint Commission Accreditation Summit this April in Lombard. A few summit attendees asked me to cover continuum of care tracers in the “Tracer Methodology 101” column in The Source. I’m happy to say that we delivered on that request in the August 2010 issue. In fact, Dr. Joel Yohai, senior vice president for medical affairs and chief medical officer for Catholic Health Services of Long Island, New York, gave such a good presentation on continuum of care tracers at the Accreditation Summit that we interviewed him for the August article.

Since starting the monthly tracer column, I’m often asked if I’ve ever conducted a tracer or witnessed one during an on-site survey. No, I have not. As an employee of Joint Commission Resources, I am not allowed to observe surveys or have knowledge about the results of an organization’s survey. Instead, I learned most of what I know about tracers by attending a JCR seminar taught by JCR consultant Jane Schetter. I walked away with a good understanding of what a tracer is, and how to formulate tracer follow-up questions. I even consider them to be somewhat “fun.” I also learned about program-specific tracers by talking with Joint Commission surveyors and staff and discussing the monthly tracer column with expert reviewers. Each month I certainly keep learning about tracers, and I hope the monthly tracer scenario, sample questions, and tips checklist help you keep learning, too. If there are any topics that you would like addressed in the tracer column, take a minute to reply to my blog.

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