The Joint Commission recognized 1,043 healthcare facilities in its Top Performer on Key Quality Measures program, which means they achieve excellence in measuring accountability in areas including:
- Using evidence based practices found by research to improve outcomes.
- Tailoring care to improve patient outcomes with proximity.
- Accurately assessing the quality of patient care.
- Preventing adverse effects with established protocol.
These core areas are further broken down to evaluate facilities, which must meet high performance ratings to be recognized. The Joint Commission applauds these facilities, and plans to take a break from the annual program next year to reevaluate its system which started in 2002.
Its website explained: “The Joint Commission’s Top Performer program utilized the results of a fixed set of designated accountability chart-based performance measures to compare performance and determine top hospitals. But now, the retirement of some accountability measures, the heterogeneity of measure sets reported by hospitals and the fact that performance rates for eCQMs may not be equivalent to performance rates on chart-based measures make it very difficult to compare hospitals and identify top performers.”
It says some key components to the revised program will include recognition categories, educational opportunities, an annual report and ‘a strong focus on partnering with customers to provide the highest level of quality care for patients and their families’.
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