The term "accountable care organization" (ACO) has been nebulous since it first became part of the healthcare vocabulary in 2009 with the introduction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Since then, the industry has been waiting for the Centers for Medicare...
The Joint Commission released a new FAQ on medical staff standard MS.01.01.01 on March 10, 2011. The FAQ clarified that the medical staff is not required to hold general medical staff meetings, even though meetings were required up until 2004. In that same 2004 revision, The Joint Commission...
The Joint Commission issued its Standards BoosterPak™ for Focused Professional Practice Evaluation/Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation (FPPE/OPPE) in January. The accrediting agency didn't change any of the standards or elements of performance related to MS....
The story of Margaret McBride, a nun who was recently excommunicated for allowing an abortion to occur at Arizona-based St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, has made headlines during the past few months. The case prompted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to write...
As the March 31 deadline approaches for implementing the changes brought about by the final version of Joint Commission standard MS.01.01.01, one question hangs in the air: Are you ready?
Pressure continues to mount on hospitals to improve their patient satisfaction scores, particularly through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, or...
