The Joint Commission Releases Annual Report on Quality and Safety

On January 14, 2010, The Joint Commission released its annual report on quality of patient care.  This latest annual report provides scientific evidence of improvements in the care of patients with heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and individual surgical care.  The report covers 31 of The Joint Commission performance measures.  They include 8 related to heart attacks, 4 to heart failure, 9 to pneumonia, 8 to surgical care and 2 to asthma care. 

The key findings of the report include the following: 

1. Hospitals accredited by The Joint Commission have significantly improved the quality of care provided to heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients over a seven-year period. 
2. Hospitals that have steadily improved on individual surgical care performance measures as well as an additional heart attack and pneumonia care measures over a two-, three- or four-year period.
3. Hospital performance on 2 individual measures of quality related to inpatient care for childhood asthma is excellent after only one year of measurement.
4. Improvement is still needed for fibrinolytic therapy and administration of antibiotics: 

• 52.4% performance on providing fibrinolytic therapy within 30 minutes of arrival of heart attack patients; and
• 60.3% performance of providing antibiotics to intensive care and pneumonia patients within 24 hours of arrival. 

Other significant findings demonstrate improvements in performance measures for the following:

1. Heart failure care composite - increase of 31.9% from 2002 to 2008; and
2. Pneumonia care composite - increase of 20.6% from 2002 to 2008.

The Joint Commission appropriately states, "The results are important because they show that hospitals have improved.  The results identify opportunities for further improvement and support continual measurement and reporting quality improvement hospitals contributed to save lives, better health and quality of life for many patients as well as to lower health care costs." 

If you have any questions regarding this report or other Joint Commission issues, please do not hesitate to contact Brian D. Jent at (317) 977-1402 or bjent@hallrender.com; Todd J. Selby at (317) 977-1440 or tselby@hallrender.com; or your Hall Render attorney.

This publication is intended for general information purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice.  The reader must consult with legal counsel to determine how laws or decisions discussed herein apply to the reader's specific circumstances.