News

New book addresses fire safety compliance and strategies in hospitals and other health care settings

To help health care organizations comply with the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Life Safety Code® and The Joint Commission’s Life Safety (LS) standards for accreditation, the two organizations have co-published the second edition of The Joint Commission/NFPA Life Safety Book for Health Care Organizations.... Read More

Study finds learning communities across country support adoption of health care innovations

Learning communities can provide a rich, collaborative environment that supports the adoption of health care innovations and motivates organizational change.... Read More

New study on intensive rapid response system treatment in end-of-life care

Many intensive interventions are delivered after rapid response system (RRS) calls, which are designed to identify and respond to seriously ill patients in acute hospitals. A new study evaluates whether treatment is beneficial for end-of-life care patients for whom an RRS call is made, describes interventions administered, and measures the cost of hospitalization.... Read More

New study on advancing patient-reported outcome measures to increase patient-centered care

Interest is growing in using patients’ own reports of their health–patient-reported outcomes, or PROs–to measure quality of life and use performance on these measures for payer incentives that reward higher quality care and better outcomes.... Read More

Journal Features National Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Honorees

The July 2018 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety details the achievements of this year’s John M. Eisenberg Award recipients, including a physician who is passionate about improving communication and transparency between patients and their health care providers, a network of children’s hospitals that saved more than 9,000 children from harm, and a large health system that achieved a decrease in hospital-acquired patient harms of more than 60 percent. ... Read More

Joint Commission Resources Publishes New Book on Patient Flow

Joint Commission Resources, Inc. has published Optimizing Patient Flow: Advanced Strategies for Managing Variability to Enhance Access, Quality and Safety, edited by Eugene Litvak, PhD, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Optimization.... Read More

Reducing Health Care Provider Stress and Burnout to Improve Satisfaction and Patient Care

Reducing health care provider stress and burnout to improve satisfaction and patient care is the focus of two new articles in the May 2018 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.​... Read More

Early Treatment Program for Opioid-Dependent Newborns Significantly Reduces Cost While Maintaining Medical and Safety Outcomes

Fetal opioid exposure can result in neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). A study to be published in the June 2018 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety describes an early treatment program for opioid-dependent newborns.... Read More

New Study Analyzes Effect of Adjusting for Socioeconomic Status in CMS Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program

A new study in the April 2018 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety analyzes the effect of hospital peer groups in adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES) or “social risk” in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP).​... Read More