Q: Several healthcare accreditors, including AAAHC, revised their patient safety criteria for accreditation for 2010. Do you think this reflects an increased emphasis on patient safety by the industry overall?
Gayle Lowe: Healthcare has always had an emphasis on patient safety. However, healthcare has been in the forefront of the news in 2009 through political agendas as well as many discrepancies in the way patient safety has been compromised. There certainly have been many opportunities for improvement identified in our healthcare systems that have reached the public’s notice such as flu prevention, procedural safety, medication safety and infection control.
Q: What are some things AAAHC has done to further emphasize patient safety in its accrediting processes?
GL: AAAHC identified that in order to clarify and delineate patient safety issues in 2010, a chapter of the AAAHC’s Handbook for standards has been dedicated and focused on patient safety and infection control. Even though these issues have always been addressed by AAAHC, the emphasis on newly identified best practices and evidence-based procedures have been incorporated into the standards.
Q: What are some initiatives or processes that you have observed within ASCs that can further improve patient safety within facilities?
GL: One of the more impressive changes seen in centers is the improvements in education for staff, patients and leadership, with an emphasis on basic processes for infection control, such as handwashing. Infection control programs in the centers have been established, reevaluated and improved to ensure the program is designed to prevent, control and investigate infections and communicable diseases.
Having infection control programs is a condition for participation in the Medicare program. Medicare goes on to require, as does AAAHC, that infection control must include prevention aspects and that the centers have implemented nationally-recognized infection control guidelines.
Q: How has requiring ASC to implement nationally-recognized control and prevention guidelines affected ASCs?
GL: The centers have had to reevaluate what they have been doing and now must ensure that their processes meet nationally recognized guidelines. They must have a designated infection control professional (ICP) to assume the leadership of the program. This person should have the training in infection control and qualifications to organize, implement and monitor the program. The ICP must be delegated or appointed by the facility’s governing body to ensure they have the overall responsibility of the program. Benefits of these programs are evident in safe outcomes for patients, staff and visitor.
The first drawback you hear from centers is, of course, the time element for implementation and continuation for monitoring a successful program. I have tried to encourage centers to work “smarter” by looking for best practices of implementation and monitoring by sharing information with successful infection control programs.
Learn more about AAAHC at www.aaahc.org.
