Joint Commission plans survey changes

The Joint Commission is funded by the hospitals they survey and the Joint Commission will notify the hospitals just before the surveys. There is huge bias in the system for the Joint Commission to favor the hospitals in their surveys. Since the hospitals know when the survey is coming they prepare to look good on paper. The staff is beefed up, employees are coached, the manuals are dusted off and the facilities are spruced up, just for the survey then it all disappears. Finally, most of the survey is about systems and protocols. Little is done to see how actual patients are treated or how nursing staff is treated. Doctors have lost control of the executive boards because to speak frankly labels the doctor as a trouble maker and the hospital deals with them like they deal with outspoken nurses. The whole hospital system has taken a path down the ethical nightmare when physicians where outlawed by Starke to own and control their own facilities. Now hosptials are run by managers and executives who do not suffer malpractice suits themselves or even jail time for malfeasence. In fact, they may get promoted if the corporation makes more profit. It is all about the corporate image. Joint Commission approval sounds so good to the uninformed.