Joint Commission report shows gains in safety, quality
In some "very critical areas," Joint Commission-accredited hospitals have improved the quality of patient care over a six-year period, saving lives and improving the health of thousands of patients, according to a Joint Commission report.
"Joint Commission-accredited hospitals deserve congratulations for making major improvements in the quality of care. On some of the measures reported here more than 90 percent of these hospitals perform at rates of 90 percent or more. However, there is more work to be done," said Mark R. Chassin, MD, president of The Joint Commission.
"Improving America's Hospitals: The Joint Commission's Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2008," is an analysis of national patient safety goal compliance and hospital quality measures related to heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical conditions.
Some dramatic improvements were recorded over the six-year period of data collection, especially in providing smoking cessation advice. For example, hospitals provided this advice to 98.2 percent of heart attack patients in 2007, compared with 66.6 percent in 2002.
Other strong improvements included providing discharge instructions to heart failure patients (from 30.9 percent to 77.5 percent) and providing pneumococcal screening and vaccination to pneumonia patients (from 30.2 percent to 83.9 percent).
The performance difference among states is greater than 10 percentage points on 12 of the 24 quality measures tracked by The Joint Commission in 2007.
Among the exceptions, virtually all - 99.1 percent to 100 percent - accredited hospitals in the United States report that they measure oxygen in the bloodstream of patients with pneumonia.
"Improvement is a continuous process and in healthcare especially, it's one where the target is constantly moving," said Chassin. "The wide range of performance on some measures serves as a reminder that we must continue to work to improve patient care."
