BWH Completes Joint Commission Survey
Last month, surveyors from The Joint Commission completed their tri-annual survey of BWH and witnessed firsthand BWH's leadership in promoting excellence in patient quality and safety.
"I want to extend my deep gratitude to everyone who played a role in helping us prepare for this visit," said BWH President Betsy Nabel, MD. "It was truly a team effort. Your time, attention and commitment to our patients and families are evident every day across our distributed campus, always guided by our mission of delivering the highest standard of care to everyone we serve."
During their five days at BWH, seven surveyors used the tracer methodology, an evaluation method where surveyors select a patient and use that individual's record as a roadmap to move through an organization. During this process, the team assessed the hospital's compliance with certain standards and its systems of providing care and services.
The surveyor team visited many places across BWH and its distributed campus, including the Brigham and Women's/Mass General Health Care Center at Patriot Place in Foxborough and Brookside Community Health Center. The team commended BWH for its "competent, knowledgeable, caring and compassionate" staff and "superb, superior, best practice" care.
Some of the innovations that surveyors praised were the hospital's "LACE" tool, which BWH's Care Coordination team uses to help identify patients at high risk for hospital readmission, and the Antibiotic Stewardship program, which aims to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics. The program complements other BWH infection prevention efforts by working to inhibit antibiotic-associated problems, such as the spread of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROS), or "superbugs," and C. difficile infection.
There are areas for improvement as well, including spelling out terms that are on the "Do Not Abbreviate" list and to always "date, time and sign" all progress notes.
"Overall, surveyors left the Brigham with positive observations about how important patient safety is to us," said Kelly Schoppee, RN, director of BWH Clinical Compliance.