Environment of Care: Essentials for Health Care

Abstract

The Joint Commission (TJC) is one of the most important organizations for hospitals in the United States, as it is the largest accrediting body for these institutions. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recognizes TJC as a “deeming authority,” which means that TJC can determine which facilities meet Medicare and Medicaid certification requirements. Hospitals that comply with TJC standards are eligible for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement; conversely, noncompliance with these standards threatens a very significant portion of hospital income.TJC publishes a series of books through their publishing arm, Joint Commission Resources. This particular book focuses on the Environment of Care (EC), Emergency Management (EM), and Life Safety (LS) standards from TJC. In addition to covering hospitals, TJC standards have variations that cover ambulatory care, behavioral healthcare, critical access hospitals, laboratories, long term care, office-based surgery, and home care organizations.Audience: This book is aimed at those individuals who have broad responsibility for compliance with TJC standards in the areas of EC, EM, and LS. Those individuals who have a narrower focus (for example, on equipment management standards) will find the book less useful unless their purpose is to get a broad overview of the other areas.Features: Chapter 1 of the book goes into some hot topics of interest for Environment of Care professionals. For example, the book contains answers—including references to applicable TJC standards—to frequently asked questions about storage, such as:The book also contains a section on CMS and TJC, but it was published before the controversial December 2011 CMS memo regarding maintenance intervals and manufacturer recommendations. Therefore, it discusses the strategy agreed upon by TJC and CMS in 2010. At the time of writing this review, I believe you are relatively safe to continue to follow what is presented in the book. But I urge you to stay tuned to AAMI for updates on this issue.There's another section on TJC requirements for maintenance activities, and this may be the most valuable part of the book for the healthcare technology management folks. It summarizes and explains TJC's whole attitude and requirements for maintenance activities. Since many of the standards allow multiple ways of meeting them, several alternate suggestions are given.Other sections and chapters cover sentinel event alerts, Environment of Care tracers, the accreditation process, surveying the Environment of Care, and equipment management requirements for home care. One section includes the actual standards in a matrix format, including the types of facilities required to comply.The book also comes with a CD (Note that Adobe® Reader 9.0 is required) that “supplies additional tools for ensuring continuous compliance with” TJC standards.Assessment: This book is ideal for someone who wants the big picture to understand how TJC conducts its business. Readers who want to prove themselves more valuable to their organization beyond their traditional “silo” will find this book helpful. However, readers who are interested in learning more about equipment management will likely find this book of limited value and probably confusing; material that specifically relates to this topic (particularly in hospitals) is readily available elsewhere. In general, the book is quite clearly written and will be invaluable for those in the target audience.