Addressing Joint Commission Technology Requirements Through Automation

On December 11th the Joint Commission issued a new Sentinel Event Alert news release: “Prevent Technology-Related Healthcare Errors”. In essence the Alert praises the use of technology, but cautions that too much technology may actually be jeopardizing patient safety by increasing preventable errors. I’m always on the lookout for healthcare information, particularly things related to patient safety and satisfaction. In the alert, the Joint Commission suggests computerized medication orders and automated dispensing cabinets are frequently involved in errors.

What’s interesting about this is that the Joint Commission is in no way anti-technology. Understandably, for the safety of everyone involved, they just want to ensure it is used properly. To ensure proper use, facilities must train employees on how to use new equipment, and then, to meet Joint Commission requirements, have those users demonstrate their proficiency.

It begs the question… How does your facility ensure that employee’s use of equipment is meeting standards? For a healthcare organization of any size, that’s a monumental administrative task that will very likely fall to HR and/or training and development. Furthermore, if performance is below standard, what actions does your organization take to get performance up to standard?

One tangible way to manage this and ensure performance is tracked and improved is competency checklists. This approach really helps because they set out a set of procedures that have been determined as safe and best practices for employees to follow. A competency checklist identifies all steps and procedures that must be followed by an employee when using a piece of equipment, administering a procedure, etc. A preceptor must observe each employee following the procedures and safe equipment/procedures. Once you have the competency checklist in place, you will be faced with the reality that with literally thousands of pieces of equipment and procedures throughout a facility it can become a significant challenge to manage these lists, and that’s where automation comes in.

Automating this process relieves many of the administrative headaches for HR. Once the preceptor assesses employees, key information including ratings and any necessary training can be automatically updated in the system. Another plus is that, in the event of a Joint Commission audit, the competency checklists and associated training plans are easily retrieved without wasting a lot of time searching through files, and ultimately, that saves everyone time and stress at the end of the day!