The Joint Commission (TJC) and SGS Group are joining forces to offer hospitals and critical access hospitals in the United States the option of pursuing both accreditation and certification to various ISO and industry best practice standards beginning in early 2012.
This program combines The Joint Commission’s modern health care quality and safety standards, survey process, and accountability performance measures with SGS management system audits including certification to the ISO 9001 quality management system standards. The combination of accreditation and ISO offers hospitals the tools to maintain best practices and lower costs across their entire operation while remaining focused on their core service – delivering quality health care to patients.
ISO standards articulate management systems to consistently meet established requirements. Joint Commission standards supply the valuable quality and safety enhancing requirements which can be integrated into an organization’s quality management system. By encouraging leadership commitment to maintaining focused, organized and dynamic processes, the coordinated option has the potential to deliver extra value by improving the operating performance of the organization.
SGS, a public company, is the world’s leading verification, inspection, certification, and testing company focused on providing independent certification and quality assurance services through its worldwide network of subsidiaries, branches and agencies. SGS operates a network of 1,250 offices around the world.
The Joint Commission, and its affiliate Joint Commission International, are the leading health care accrediting bodies, both in the United States and internationally, utilizing up-to-date standards they have developed working with the health care community to help improve the quality and safety of care.
“We are providing this option for hospitals and critical access hospitals in the United States that are interested in exploring the combination of ISO education and certification with Joint Commission accreditation as a mechanism to more precisely identify system vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. Future plans are to expand the option to organizations accredited under other Joint Commission accreditation programs,” says Ann Scott Blouin, RN, Ph.D., FACHE, executive vice president, Accreditation and Certification Operations, The Joint Commission.
“Providing this enhanced service to health care organizations through the alliance of SGS and The Joint Commission is a natural progression for health care performance improvement,” says Tony Perkins, senior vice president, SGS. “We are offering health care organizations an opportunity to take advantage of a number of ISO standards which complement Joint Commission accreditation requirements. This provides a method for hospitals to focus on improvements in quality and customer service in all departments, as well as their facility’s impact on the environment.”
Click here for more information.
Source: TJC News Release
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment