The Joint Commission is celebrating 40 years this year, and recently featured The Emory Clinic, which the organization has accredited since 1991.
Penny Castellano, MD, CMO and chief quality officer, has been with The Emory Clinic for 25 years and discussed the programs she worked on over the past several years to improve the center and maintain Joint Commission accreditation.
Here are five key notes from Dr. Castellano:
1. She appreciates the unannounced survey because it challenges the clinic to be survey-ready at all times and attend to even small risks.
2. The accreditation helped the clinic learn about best practices and focus on the most important aspects of patient safety.
3. Dr. Castellano credits the survey process with helping the organization standardize common practices and prevent adverse events.
4. The clinic now focuses on correctly labeling medication containers and adheres to the labels, in addition to other measures.
5. The clinic developed a concrete goal for the safety team to dispose of expired medication and identify about-to-expire drug vials called "Throw Away Thursday" where someone goes through the cabinet every week and throws away expired medication.