Perioperative News Update
July 2008
ACCREDITATION
The Joint Commission Alert: Stop bad behavior
A new alert issued by The Joint Commission warns that rude language and hostile behavior among health care professionals poses a serious threat to patient safety and the overall quality of care. Intimidating and disruptive behaviors such as verbal outbursts, condescending attitudes, refusing to take part in assigned duties, or physical threats are such a serious issue that The Joint Commission is introducing new standards requiring accredited health care organizations to create a code of conduct that defines acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and to establish a formal process for managing unacceptable behavior. The new standards take effect January 1, 2009, for hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, laboratories, ambulatory care facilities, and behavioral health care facilities. Read the alert.
FROM THE AMA
AMA takes stand regarding ‘Doctor’ title
At its House of Delegates meeting last month in Chicago, the American Medical Association took a formal stand seeking to “protect” the title of doctor within the scope of medical practice. The stand appears in part to be a reaction to the rise of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs, which are in some instances replacing master’s degrees in advanced practice nursing.
One AMA resolution called for DNPs to practice “as part of a medical team under the supervision of a licensed physician who has final authority and responsibility for the patient.” Another called for states to adopt legislation that would that would make it a felony to misrepresent oneself as a physician. During the House of Delegates debate, physician speakers decried the growth of DNP programs and said the 500 hours of clinical training they required were inadequate.
PATIENT SAFETY
2009 National Patient Safety Goals announced
The Joint Commission announced its 2009 National Patient Safety Goals on June 17. Major changes from the 2008 goals include three new requirements related to preventing health-care associated infections due to multiple drug-resistant organisms (MDROs), central line-associated bloodstream infections and surgical site infections.
Building on an existing goal to reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infections, these new requirements are designed to help facilities recognize that patients continue to acquire preventable infections at an alarming rate within hospitals, according to a news release from The Joint Commission. These new infection-related requirements have a one-year phase in period that includes defined milestones, with full implementation expected by January 1, 2010.
Other changes to the National Patient Safety Goals include a requirement to eliminate transfusion errors related to patient misidentification in hospitals, critical access hospitals, ambulatory care facilities and office-based surgery practices. New requirements for several programs focus on engaging patients in their care of infection control, prevention of surgical adverse events and the patient identification process.
Applying to more than 15,000 Joint Commission-accredited and -certified healthcare organizations and programs, The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals promote improvements in patient safety by providing healthcare organizations with solutions to persistent safety programs. Read the complete 2009 National Patient Safety Goals at www.jointcommission.org.
INFECTION CONTROL
Poll finds increased MRSA prevention measures, need for staff, technology to control MRSA infection
While more than three out of four infection prevention and control professionals said they have implemented additional measures to prevent the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the last year, more than half said their institutions are not doing as much as they could and should be doing to prevent the spread of MRSA. That’s according to 2,041 infection control professionals across the country who responded April 25-May 15, 2008 to an online survey conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
Of those respondents who said their facility should be doing more to control the spread of MRSA, the most popular needs listed included additional staff and healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance technology.
Respondents to this May 2008 APIC Pace of Progress Poll also answered that institutions who have adopted new interventions are using a group of approaches to prevent the transmission of MRSA, including:
- staff education
- more aggressive hand hygiene programs
- stricter use of contact precautions for patients who test positive for MRSA
- more emphasis on housekeeping and cleaning equipment
- maintaining a tracking system to flag patients previously identified as having MRSA patient/client education
- better HAI surveillance technology
- additional staff or an increase in hours dedicated to infection control and universal patient screening
“It’s good news that healthcare providers are adopting a multi-faceted approach,” said APIC’s 2008 President Janet E. Frain, RN, CIC, CPHQ, CPHRM, in a June 17 APIC news release. For more information about this survey or to access APIC’s guidelines for the elimination of MRSA transmission, visit www.apic.org.
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