While I've been quiet lately on the subject of trade groups attempting to launch medical tourism accreditation programs, others have advanced the story.
First, Avery Comarow, of U.S. News & World Report, blogged about the Medical Tourism Association's bid to become an accrediting body.
Comarow reports that Karen Timmons, president and CEO of the Joint Commission International, resigned from the MTA's board of advisors "after the program was announced and featured on the MTA Web page." An advisory board to the trade group told the MTA's president that the association cannot accredit, according to Comarow, so the MTA swapped out "accreditation" for "certification" on its Web site.
After talking with Renee-Marie Stephano, chief operating officer of the MTA, back in July, I had anticipated that more information about the program would be on the association's Web site by now, but only promotional copy can be found at the time I'm writing this story. On the U.S. News blog, a comment attributed to Stephano states in part: "The media seeks comments from people in the 'quality' sector of healthcare to create controversy where there is none. MTA certification is not about the quality of medical services as clearly stated from the beginning."
I'm sure some might consider me biased on the subject, but I wouldn't go so far as to pin the confusion about this program—whether it's called accreditation or certification—on members of the media. As a business-to-business writer, I find that readers in the healthcare industry are much more grateful when we can provide them with useful, concise, and clear information than when we rile them. To that point, I remain interested to see the association's certification standards spelled out in a way that removes all doubt about its benefits and intent.
The International Medical Travel Association has also responded recently with written comments on the topic of international accreditation. In the IMTA's view, "it is neither sufficient nor professionally acceptable for an organization to simply declare itself a grantor of accreditation while lacking the requisite infrastructure and oversight."
The IMTA paper points out four common-sense guidelines for determining whether an organization is a legitimate accreditation agency. "We believe that with patient safety at stake, accreditation standards and processes must be vetted by internationally recognized accreditation organizations and government agencies," Steven Tucker, MD, president of the IMTA says in a prepared statement. "The emergence of trade groups and others declaring themselves as quality accreditors or certification authorities not only threatens the integrity of existing organizations, but also creates market confusion at a time when global outsourcing of medical care is a growing phenomenon."
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media Global, a free weekly e-newsletter that provides strategic information on the business of healthcare management from around the globe.
To better facilitate care for international patients, Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre has unveiled a new apartment complex to house medical tourists and their families. It is located inside the hospital's main building, and was constructed to cater to the needs of recovering patients and their family members.
More than 10% of employees of the Los Angeles-based Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital had criminal histories, according to a long-awaited analysis that also found the King nurses provided inferior care. The hospital had about 1,600 employees when background checks were conducted a year ago, according to the report by the auditor-controller's department. Of those, 1,356 had their backgrounds examined, and 152 of those came back with criminal or arrest records. The number is far larger than the 17 employees with criminal histories that Los Angeles County has previously acknowledged.
In this opinion piece for the New York Times, Sandeep Jauhar, MD, says that on the surface pay for performance seems like a good idea, but the initiative may be having untoward consequences. Under P4P, there is pressure to treat even when the diagnosis isn't firm, so, for example, more and more antibiotics are being used in emergency rooms despite all-too-evident dangers like antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-associated infections, Jauhar says.
Atlanta's Emory Crawford Long Hospital plans to demolish the 78-year-old Life of Georgia building to make way for a medical complex scheduled to open in 2013. But the plans have started to draw opposition, as the Atlanta Preservation Center has launched an online petition signed by more than 275 people asking the hospital to reconsider. The hospital is still fleshing out its plans and does not intend to tear down the building anytime soon. In the meantime, it is conducting an audit of the property's architectural features that might be worth reusing.
A coalition of business and labor groups has joined with an advocacy group for the elderly to try to break the gridlock and achieve successful healthcare reform under the next president. The nearly 40 million-member senior citizens group AARP, the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the Service Employees International Union have been dogging candidates on healthcare for more than a year. Their "Divided We Fail" campaign includes television advertisements and dozens of community forums to ensure healthcare takes center stage in this year's congressional and presidential elections.