Accredited facilities to enjoy streamlined reporting - NH News Notes - Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, new data-reporting option - Brief Article

Nursing Homes, Jan, 2002

For long-term care facilities that choose to be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), a new data-reporting option will soon be available.

Under a plan adopted in November by JCAHO's Executive Committee of the Board of Commissioners, long-term care organizations will be able to use the same data to satisfy both federal government and JCAHO performance data requirements. JCAHO will create an Internet-based reporting system to allow providers to self-report the aggregate quality indicator data from the MDS, but providers will be able to still use their current JCAHO-accepted performance measurement system to meet requirements of the ORYX initiative--an attempt to create a comprehensive, data-driven accreditation process by including outcomes and other performance measurement data.

"These options will preserve the widely recognized need to collect and transmit performance data, while affording flexibility to long-term care organizations," Marianna Kern Grachek, MSN, RN, CNHA, executive director for Long Term Care and Assisted Living Accreditation Programs at JCAHO, said in a release announcing the new option, which JCAHO believes might help long-term care organizations reduce duplicative data collection requirements and ORYX initiative costs.

JCAHO will need a one-year transition period to construct the system, and JCAHO says it will consider ORYX participation exemptions on an ad hoc basis during this time for overburdened providers. However, these providers will have to share MDS data reports with JCAHO surveyors during on-site surveys and provide the 2002 reports to JCAHO by Internet in 2003.

More than 19,000 healthcare organizations are accredited by JCAHO, including more than 2,700 organizations offering long-term care, subacute care and dementia care.

Table.

Award and Settlement Medians for Claims Against Nursing Homes.

Type of Claim                     Award Median  Settlement Median

Nursing Home Negligence, Overall  $192,977      $132,500
Physical/Sexual Abuse             $376,500      $197,500
Treatment                         $275,000      $200,000
Negligent Supervision             $150,000      $100,000
Premises Liability                $125,000      $54,500
Business/Employer Negligence      $111,000      n/a

Reproduced with permission from Jury Verdict Research--Horsham, Pa.