It had been the case that TJC had perpetual deemed status… the ‘favorite son’ if you will.

Recently, however, as a result of some tussles between CMS and TJC, it was decided that (1) it’s a bad idea to have an institution with ‘perpetual’ deemed status, and (2) it’s bad to have just one organization providing quality and safety oversight.

CMS has now also approved DNV as an alternative accreditor of hospital services for Medicare / Medicaid reimbursement.

Here’s a link to an accurate summary of the Joint Commission losing it’s deemed status. In essence, they will have to apply for deemed status just like other accreditation agencies do.
It will no longer be handed to them because of the history they have of conflicts of interest with the hospital industry; as a result, they are reportedly ramping up their standards, but this won’t be enough. We need a true regulatory agency that acts on behalf of patients/consumers of healthcare. Medical errors are in the top ten leading causes of death in the US. For the past two years, septicemia alone has moved into tenth place, ahead of suicide for leading causes. Septicemia often = hospital acquired infection which leads to septicemia and multiple organ failure.

http://www.advocatealliance.net/aa_articles.htm

here’s the link to several Government Accountability Office (GAO) Reports on this issue:
(type in The Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation in the search bar)

http://www.gao.gov/

Agreed about a patient protection agency with teeth. Great idea. Does anything like that exist but lacks teeth?

TJC is also not patient friendly when a patient is harmed or dies an untimely death in a hospital. Their complaint system allows you to file a complaint against a hospital. TJC then sends a letter to the hospital asking for a response to the complaint, and then they evaluate it. The patient/their family has no chance for rebuttal, can’t gain access to any part of the ‘investigation’ process at all, and is basically told that they have to just accept a canned letter of response stating that “they take these complaints seriously.”

We all have to remember that TJC’s first allegiance is to hospitals. They are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by hospitals to provide education/evaluations/& feedback on how they can improve. But they are in no way, shape or form a regulatory or patient safety organization that puts patients interests first.

This is why we need a patient protection agency with teeth. No one is at the helm of looking out for patients. When patients are harmed by care (too often), the only system of accountability currently available are the courts. TJC, Medical Boards, State Healtcare Facility Licensing Departments are either wrought with conflicts of interest, or are underfunded and unequipped to provide any accountability.

TJC recently lost their deemed status with The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid because 2 Government Accountability Office Reports revealed just how fraught they are with conflicts of interest with the very hospitals they serve. Sadlly, this doesn’t serve patients interests at all.