Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)

> The American Hospital Association continues to fight efforts by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) to resell hospital data gathered during the accreditation process. Release (pdf)

> Physicians who work closely with law firms pursuing medical malpractice and product liability suits are finding themselves under increasing scrutiny. …

Inspectors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations toured hospitals in New Orleans over the weekend. Their report: "essentially the health care infrastructure of New Orleans is gone--it doesn't exist." According to JCAHO vice president Joe Capiello none of the city's 12 hospitals appears to be in any state to be accredited. That may pose serious challenges as residents move back in, some observers predict. 

Others fear that hospitals worried …

The World Health Organization launched an international drive to reduce the number of preventable medical errors. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will play a leading role in the drive, which seeks to use best practices to eliminate preventable mistakes. While researchers say that up to 100,000 Americans die every year because of preventable medical mistakes, nobody is really sure how many are lost on a global basis. Supporters say simple steps could save thousands of lives. Story

The Washington Post hosted an online chat yesterday featuring Dartmouth's John Wennberg following up on the paper's influential series on Medicare. The discussion, which is archived on the paper's web site, focuses on problems turned up by the Post's investigative reporters, including loopholes in the system's reimbursement regulations and potentially serious conflicts of interest at accreditor JCAHO. Story

The Washington Post also wonders aloud about standards group JCAHO in a long piece which is also part of the series mentioned in story #2 above. The paper looks at the history and evolution of the organization, which over the past 40 years has risen from obscurity to become a powerful force in healthcare. The Post's conclusion: "The joint commission's practices raise questions about potential conflicts of interest and the rigor of its hospital surveys." A companion article …

Two new studies which appear today in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest modest success in the national effort to improve outcomes by setting benchmarks for the treatment of pneumonia, heart attacks and congestive heart failure. One study from JCAHO looked at three measures and found modest to significant improvement over a two-year period. The other study from Harvard School of Public Health compared teaching and non-teaching hospitals, and non-profit and for-profit on …

The national non-profit hospital accreditation and standards group JCAHO said it has discovered a bug affecting software it distributes to hospitals. According to critics, the bug may cause hospitals to loose some quality control data. Thousands of hospitals around the country use the software to track their progress towards hundreds of different criteria used by the standards and accreditation group. JCAHO informed customers of the problem with a note posted on the organization's website …

> AARP says it will fight TennCare plan. Story 

> Westchester medical center bailout hits legislative speed bump in NY. Story

> AMA says it wants pharmacists to obey law, better oversight at Gitmo. …