The Joint Commission has announced it has plans to expand its Heart Failure Advanced Certification Program. The program, which the accrediting organization conducts together with the American Heart Association, looks at the continuum of care for patients who experience heart failure in various healthcare settings.
The Joint Commission is seeking input from healthcare organizations and professionals involved in caring for patients with heart failure. Specifically, The Joint Commission seeks comments on proposed standards. They also seek participants for focus groups on how the standards will be implemented, locations willing to participate in pilot testing for assessing standards compliance, and sites willing to play host to Joint Commission representatives to look at compliance with the standards.
In related news, The Joint Commission continues to seek feedback on recent updates to its sentinel event statistics. The accrediting body released updated numbers related to sentinel events last week. For more information on both of these topics, accreditation professionals should visit www.jointcommission.org.
Matt Phillion, CSHA, is senior managing editor of Briefings on The Joint Commission and senior editorial advisor for the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (AHAP).