St. Joseph's awarded Accreditation from Joint Commission

St. Joseph’s Hospital awarded Accreditation from Joint Commission

By demonstrating compliance with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization’s national standards for health care quality and safety, St. Joseph’s Hospital of Highland has earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval.

Founded in 1951, the Joint Commission is dedicated to continuously improving the safety and quality of the nation’s health care through voluntary accreditation. The Joint Commission’s on-site survey of St. Joseph’s occurred in late April 2006.

“Above all, the national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in an organization’s performance and the outcomes of care,” says Darlene Christiansen, Executive Director, Hospital Accreditation Program, Joint Commission. “The community should be proud that St. Joseph’s is focusing on the most challenging goal – to continuously raise quality and safety to higher levels.”

In addition to being granted accreditation, St. Joseph’s “Fall Reduction Plan” for patient safety, created and written by Deb Weiss RN, Quality Management, was accepted into the Joint Commission Resources (JCR) “Good Practices Database”.

After the JCR Consultant, Chris McGreevey, reviewed the Fall Reduction Plan, she was impressed with the simplicity, layout, and detail driven manner in which Deb used in composing the plan. Chris requested permission to submit this plan to JCR for acceptance into their Good Practices Database. The plan was approved and accepted by the JCR team and now serves as an exemplary way for other healthcare organizations to use when developing their own plan.

Claudio Fort , Hospital Administrator, feels the success on this survey was a critical step in the hospital’s revitalization process. “As administrator, several people have congratulated me on this accomplishment; however, the real reason for our success was not me but the dedicated staff here at St. Joseph’s. They have consistently risen to the occasion and have overcome every challenge that we have faced in the last couple of years. It is a privilege to work with a group of people that are so dedicated to the mission of this hospital and providing quality healthcare to Highland and the surrounding area."