Inside JCI: What Makes Joint Commission International the Gold Standard?

The healthcare industry prioritizes accuracy, care and patient safety. Whether it is the careful sterilization of surgical equipment or the precise administration of medication, every little detail is part of the care process.

Take, for example, we all anticipate that when we or our loved ones require medical care, we shall be in good hands, in a place where safety and well-being are given priority. Imagine a loved one having an operation, a new mother giving birth to her child, or an old parent coming out of an illness. Accuracy, care, safety and trust are essential in these instances. We trust the nurses to prescribe the right medication at the right time, the surgeons to use exact procedures, and the hospital itself to provide a clean and infection-free environment.

Also, we have all heard of or even been victims of times when things do not go according to plan.

•  The creepy sensation when a physician is in a hurry or a nurse is stressed.
•  Fear of cleanliness, or unresolved uncertainty as to whether all possible precautions were taken to avoid a complication.
•  The worry that a misunderstanding between departments in the hospital would result in a mistake.

It is in this setting that external validation becomes vital to make sure that health institutions meet and surpass the expected standards regularly. This means an independent, rigorous oversight or external validation in healthcare to ensure quality service. This is exactly where Joint Commission International (JCI) come in as a critical source of quality benchmark.

This article offers a detailed insight as to what JCI is, what makes it one of a kind, its wide geographical scope, its detailed system of evaluation, and the immense effect it has on healthcare institutions and the population they serve.

 JCI: A Worldwide Pledge to Quality

At its core, Joint Commission International is an international leader in improving the quality of healthcare and the safety of patients. JCI has been considered to have set the standard of healthcare accreditation in the world. Its purpose can be summed up as facilitating and empowering the best quality of healthcare provision and patient safety to everyone.

The vision of JCI is defined through zero harm and high-reliability care delivery. In order to make this vision a reality, JCI has to work closely with healthcare organizations all over the world, helping them to go through the process of transformation based on continuous improvement and the adoption of best practices. This dedication is widespread in a variety of healthcare systems, and this is why JCI Gold Seal of Approval is the universal symbol of quality.

JCI is a global organization with a serious presence and impact:

• It has operations in more than 70 countries including those in Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. This implies that the standards set by JCI are modified and implemented in different cultural and regulatory environments, and at the same time, maintain a universal level of quality and safety, ensuring that patients are not concerned about receiving substandard treatment wherever they go.
• More than 1000 programs have been accredited and certified by JCI, and this is an indication of the broad usage of its stringent system by other healthcare providers who are eager to show that they want to be at the top when it comes to excellence.
• It is a wide network that is backed by over 600 professionals around the world working day and night to mentor and assess healthcare organizations, who are experienced and determined to give the best standards.

 Rigorous Standards

The main pillar of JCI’s reputation as a gold standard is its strict global standards. They are not just recommendations, as the standards constitute the core of a thorough evaluation process aimed at assisting healthcare organizations in measuring, improving and evaluating their performance on a regular basis. They cover broad spectrum of operational and clinical domains, making sure that all the aspects of patient care, such as infrastructure and equipment repair as well as the most sophisticated medical procedures, are governed by the best standards. As an example, the standards may deal with:

• Infection Prevention and Control: This is to ensure that there is good hand hygiene, that equipment is sterilized, and that isolation is done to ensure that patients cannot get hospital-acquired infections which is a concern for any patient going to the hospital.
• Medication Management: Implementing stringent medication procedures of prescriptions, dispensations, and administration of medications to avoid errors with adverse effects.
• Facility Safety: This should be accompanied by frequent inspection of fire safety mechanisms, emergency power and environmental controls to provide a physically safe environment to patients and employees.

Patient Safety Goals

One of the most important elements of the overall framework JCI offers is the creation of International Patient Safety Goals. Such objectives are specifically designed to solve the most serious problems of patient safety in some of the most troubling areas that healthcare providers have to deal with on daily basis. Although the actual list of these objectives is long and detailed in the accreditation manuals of JCI, their overall aim is to direct the accredited organizations towards achieving specific changes that can directly improve patient outcomes and reduce risks. Common goals may be:

•  Proper Patient Identification: Ensuring that all patients receive the right treatment and medication that they are supposed to have without confusion that may arise in a busy environment.
•  Enhancing Effective Communication: Adoption of effective communication mechanisms between healthcare providers with minimal misinterpretation that may give rise to any form treatment mistrust.
•  Minimizing the Risk of Healthcare-associated Infections: Coming down to the idea of such practices as hand hygiene and environmental cleaning to keep vulnerable patients safe.
•  Minimizing the Potential of Patient Injury Due to Falls: Establishing interventions and settings that ensure patients fall, especially the elderly or those with mobility issues.

With these outlined objectives, JCI makes sure that medical professionals will be active in eliminating the prevalent risks and establishing a safer setting for all patients. The ability of JCI to transform healthcare organizations around the globe with the help of a combination of broad-based international standards and targeted patient safety objectives enables the former to promote the continuous quality improvement process and integrate a strong culture of safety into the working framework of the organizations involved.

Comprehensive Evaluation Methods

The assessment processes of JCI are renowned for being extensive and comprehensive. The accreditation process is not a mere superficial examination, but a thorough examination that promotes profound organizational transformation. Although a specific step-by-step process description is going into very detailed stages (which may be found in JCI guide to JCI accreditation), it is, in general, followed by a careful on-site survey by JCI specialists. Such well-experienced surveyors evaluate an organization on compliance with hundreds of standards and patient safety objectives by:

•  Direct Observation: observing healthcare professionals at work including interaction with patients and performing procedures.
•  Staff Interviews: Communicating with the doctors, nurses, administrators, and support staff to know how they are aware of safety measures and what they do daily.
•  Documentation review: Reviewing documentation on patients, policies, procedures and quality improvement data to review compliance and effective implementation.

The assessment is envisioned as an educational experience and not an audit. Hospital leaders often say that the process of accreditation can be a good team-building experience and immensely improve:

• Coordination: Various departments get to know how to coordinate better which enhances the movement of patients and care transitions.
• Communication: At every level, staff devises more effective and clearer methods of exchanging important information about a patient.
• There are numerous possibilities to educate and develop the staff: The process can make it obvious where training can be reinforced, which results in a better and more confident staff.

This strict self-evaluation and third-party confirmation result in radical change inside the organization, making it aim at operation excellence and improved patient safety awareness. It is all about changing the culture of doing things the same way as it has always been done to do things even better and safer.

 Influence on Hospital Operations and Patient Trust

JCI accreditation profoundly impacts the functioning of a hospital. To healthcare organizations, JCI accreditation is a major source of competitive advantage in the context of the emerging globalized healthcare industry. It is a message to patients, payers, and partners that the institution has attained the most international standards of quality and safety. This outward confirmation directly contributes to community confidence in the quality and safety of care, treatment and services that are provided. When one sees a JCI Gold Seal of Approval proudly displayed by a hospital, the feeling of trust is profound and evokes the faith a patient and his family have in the product as depicted by the brand logo they trust.

In addition to the market distinction, the JCI accreditation results in actual operational improvement. It contributes greatly to risk management and reduction of risks at the hospital. Organizations that are going through the process tend to:

•  Streamline their internal systems: This may involve streamlining systems related to patient admission to ensure reduced wait time and enhanced initial evaluation or the streamlining of discharging processes to guarantee seamless care in the home environment.
•  Efficient workflow: Ensuring that all the processes a patient goes through, starting with diagnosis and ending with recovery, are effective, transparent, and have minimal chances of a mistake.
•  Enforce strong safety measures: There are well-marked exit doors, sophisticated equipment to monitor medical devices, and all other necessary precautions to ensure a safe environment.

This assists in organizing and empowering the patient safety initiatives in all departments where there is a proactive culture of patient safety, and every employee of the facility is responsible for ensuring the provision of safe and high-quality services.

 To many of the best hospitals in the world, aiming at this certification is not just a matter of compliance, but of showing a constant, consistent commitment to the best standards of patient care possible, something that will give confidence to patients and their families.

The confidence built on the JCI accreditation is priceless, and the assurance that the treatment and services provided are of utmost quality.

 Conclusion

The dedication towards quality and patient safety by Joint Commission International has made it the gold standard in healthcare accreditation. JCI still has a huge impact on the functioning of the hospital and earns the trust of patients through its strict international standards, specific International Patient Safety Goals, multifaceted assessment tools, and extensive international presence.

JCI accreditation is not just a certification process that healthcare organizations worldwide must follow, it is a journey of continuous improvement and a demonstration of a relentless quest to deliver the safest and the best quality care. It provides that much-needed peace of mind, as people and families come to know that when they enter a JCI-accredited facility, they are really in good hands.