Question

Explain the relationship of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) standards to job descriptions.

Answer 1

JCAHO stands for Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. This is a not-for-profit organization that has a history dating back to 1910, when it held the name American College of Surgeons. This group developed the idea of having systematic standardization in hospitals. The idea grew and evolved to include not only acute care hospitals, but also many other types of healthcare organizations, including doctors' offices, nursing facilities, office-based surgery centers, behavioral treatment facilities, and providers of home care services. In 1990, the organization's name was shortened to The Joint Commission (TJC).

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According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the simple definition of the word accreditation is ''to say that something (in this case, a hospital or other healthcare organization) is good enough to be given official approval.''In healthcare, accreditation is granted by organizations that compare what is actually going on at a hospital (or other healthcare organization) with standards of excellence.

Accreditation Standards

The easiest way to think of accreditation standards is to think of a yard stick. The yard stick is a standard against which a person would measure or compare something to see how it measures up (for instance, how long or tall it is). It's largely the same with TJC accreditation standards. These standards provide a way to examine healthcare organizations to see how they measure up in providing excellent care to their patients.

The requirements that must be met for an organization to be accredited by TJC vary according to the type of healthcare organization. For example, the standards for an ambulatory surgery center will be quite different from the standards for an inpatient psychiatric facility.

Let's say a patient is going to have surgery for a knee replacement. Certain actions should be taken to prevent infection in that new knee. Therefore, TJC sets specific standards for preventing infection in hip and knee replacement surgeries. The standards address which antibiotics should be used, the timing of the antibiotics, how many doses the patient should receive, and how long after surgery the last dose should be given (for instance, within 24 hours of the end of surgery). All of these details would be looked at and measured precisely to determine if a case meets the standard or not.