Answer this Question

How do you ensure patient privacy in the waiting room?

If you haven’t yet, you should check out NAHAM’s new Toolkit for Joint Commission surveys. The toolkit features a preparedness checklist and series of question sets – all organized around the disciplines NAHAM members all know and respect. NAHAM members may access the toolkit with their usernames and passwords from the NAHAM website.  Look for Government Relations on the sidebar and then click Joint Commission Survey Toolkit.

The toolkit looks not only at the requirements of positive patient identity, but also other aspects of the hospital experience that patient access managers can be responsible for – cultural competencies, patient privacy, infection, prevention and control, and environment of care… of course these sound familiar and drive much of our efforts to build knowledge and competencies for our staff, teams and colleagues.

The toolkit was developed and launched by a group of dedicated NAHAM members serving on the Policy Development and Government Relations Committee, but its success, and viability will depend on all NAHAM members. It will be NAHAM members who use the toolkit as a resource for ensuring a successful Joint Commission survey.  And it will be NAHAM members who contribute new checklist items, questions or question sets, and resources that others can use to strengthen their ability to ensure that the patient access management team in their facilities not only fulfill the expectations of a Joint Commission survey – but also contribute to our ability to meet the healthcare expectations of every patient we engage.

So, here’s this week’s question –

How do you ensure patient privacy in the waiting room?

Tell us what your specific protocols and safeguards and best practices are.

Send us any resources, guidance or educational material that can guide others relative to protecting patient privacy in the hospital setting.

You can also provide input when you are in the toolkit with an easy-to-use comment form.