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The Joint Commission to Certify Cardiac Care

News  |  By Tinker Ready  
   January 18, 2017

The new program is designed to help hospitals reduce unwanted variations in cardiac care, lower costs, and improve outcomes.

The Joint Commission has added cardiac centers to the list of services that it certifies. The organization already certifies primary care medical homes, perinatal care, and "disease specific care."

Unlike accreditation, which is granted to an entire hospital or health facility, certification is granted for individual services.

The "Comprehensive Cardiac Center Advanced Certification" will ensure that the programs demonstrate "compliance with consensus-based standards, effective integration of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, and an organized approach to performance measurement and improvement," according to The JCHO. Reviewers will also look at the communication among care teams, patients and families.

In an announcement of the program, Patrick Phelan of The JCHO Hospital Business Development program wrote that the certification will encourage hospitals to deliver coordinated, and patient-centered cardiac care. The effort should also improve transitions from care settings.

The review will focus "on key processes to assist hospitals with reducing unwanted variations in how cardiac care is delivered to lower costs and improve patient outcomes," he wrote.

The centers will have to offer the services for the following conditions to be considered for certification:

  • Ischemic heart disease, including valve replacement and repair
     
  • Cardiac valve disease
     
  • Arrhythmias, including electrophysiology services and outpatient device clinic
     
  • Advanced heart failure, including outpatient services
     
  • Cardiac arrest, including prevention of in-hospital arrests, resuscitation, and targeted temperature management for cardiac arrest
     
  • Cardiac rehabilitation of patients
     
  • Cardiovascular risk factor identification and cardiac disease prevention

The development of the certification program involved feedback from a panel of multidisciplinary clinical experts, a national field review, and "pilot surveys to assess the current state of comprehensive cardiac centers and the operational challenges involved in addressing the multiple domains of cardiac patient care and services," according to The JCHO.

Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. About 610,000 Americans die from heart disease each year.

Tinker Ready is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.

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