The Joint Commission
The Joint Commission, or simply “TJC,” is an organization formed to accredit medical facilities. It is a private organization composed of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, risk managers, and other professionals. The main concern of TJC is patient safety. The Joint Commission Accreditation is voluntary. However, CMS states that, in order to receive reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid, a health care provider must have completed the accreditation survey and be approved by The Joint Commission. Typically, TJC will visit every 18-24 months to ensure compliance.
HIM Professionals should be aware of what TJC evaluates to accredit a medical facility, because he/she may be called upon to provide needed information or otherwise assist in a TJC audit.
Suppose you worked at a medical facility and were given the assignment to prepare the facility for a Joint Commission audit.
A patient came to Dr. Bayberry’s office. She was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was given an antibiotic injection. Before the injection, she was asked the appropriate questions and denied having any allergies to medications. The medical assistant had the patient wait the allowed 15 minutes, and there was no visible adverse reaction. The patient was released to go home with her daughter. Five minutes after leaving the office, the daughter came back in a panic: the patient was unconscious in the car. Dr. Bayberry and the medical assistant went to the car to find that the patient had gone into cardiac arrest. EMS was called and the doctor and medical assistant did CPR until they arrived.
According to the article about sentinel events from TJC, what takes place now? Is there a need to do any reporting? Is TJC involved? Write a four-paragraph paper on what takes place after a sentinel event such as the above occurs. Save the file as “SentinelEvent”
