Joint Commission Behavioral Health Update
November 2015
In This Issue:

Greetings to Our Colleagues in Behavioral Healthcare!
Thanksgiving greetings to our clients and colleagues across the country! Before the hectic holiday season ensues, we have a few TJC updates for you.

Our first article provides information on survey findings from 2015 that fall into the "not (yet) frequently cited" category. They are a Heads Up for your next survey.

Our second article deals with the new requirements that go into effect on January 1, 2016 related to management of clinical alarms. This is an important patient safety issue and a relevant topic for our psychiatric hospital clients. 

We value your feedback on the newsletter. Please send us your comments and tell us what topics you would like to see in future issues. We look forward to hearing from you!  Also, feel free to this newsletter to your colleagues.

Best regards to you and yours for a Happy Holiday Season! Our newsletter will return in January 2016.

Regards,
Anne Barrins
President/CEO
Are you in your "window of survey availability?"

If your last TJC survey was 18 months ago, you are now in the "window of survey availability." The best preparation for your next TJC survey is a mock survey. We are currently scheduling mock surveys for 2016. Contact us soon if you would like our team to conduct a mock survey for your organization!

1-877-546-7206
Tip of the Month
Joint Commission Resources offers a free toolkit entitled Patient Safety Initiative: Hospital Executive and Physician Leadership Strategies. It's full of ideas and activities to help leaders engender support for patient safety.
Why Choose
Barrins & Associates?
"As a large and diverse family of agencies, we were looking for consultants who could prepare all of our programs for TJC accreditation. Barrins & Associates' expertise and consultation was exactly what we needed."

Dr. Peter Zucker, CEO
Stars Behavioral Health Group
Long Beach, CA
Heads Up!
Not in the Top Ten Yet But ...
As the year winds down, we thought it would be useful to review the top compliance issues encountered by psychiatric hospitals and behavioral healthcare organizations in 2015. However, truth is that the Top Ten list hasn't changed much and the topics are quite familiar (treatment planning, competencies, pain screening, etc.) So, we decided to take a look at recent survey findings from the other side of the coin; i.e. findings that we have never seen cited before (or at least not often cited). Here's a list of these from our clients' surveys in 2015.  Consider them a "Heads Up" for your next survey!
Continue Reading >
Psychiatric Hospitals
New Requirements for Clinical Alarm Management
Effective January 1, 2016
The National Patient Safety Goal on Alarm Management (NPSG.06.01.01) went into effect in January, 2014 for hospitals. TJC defines a clinical alarm as "A component of some medical devices that is designed to notify caregivers of an important change in a patient's physiologic status. A clinical alarm typically provides audible and/or visible notification of the changed patient status." Psychiatric hospitals typically do not have the abundance and variety of clinical alarms that acute care hospitals have. However, there are some types of alarms used in psychiatric hospitals that do fit into this category. When this National Patient Safety Goal went into effect in 2014, the requirement was that "leaders establish alarm system safety as a hospital priority." Surveyors have been reviewing compliance with these requirements in 2014 and 2015.

Continue reading for requirements beginning January 1 >
NEW CLIENTS!
Barrins & Associates is pleased to welcome five new clients: The Arroyos Treatment Centers in Pasadena, California, Bluff Plantation in Augusta, Georgia, GenPsych in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Mesa Springs in Fort Worth, Texas, and Laurel Ridge Treatment Center in San Antonio, Texas. We are pleased to support these organizations in their survey readiness efforts!
Congratulations Corner
Congratulations to our client Transformations Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in Delray Beach, Florida, who recently achieved their initial, three-year Joint Commission accreditation!
Continue Reading >
Barrins & Associates provides Joint Commission and CMS consulting services for the Behavioral Healthcare industry. Our clients include psychiatric hospitals and freestanding Behavioral Healthcare organizations. We specialize in providing Survey Preparation and Continuous Survey Readiness services for the Behavioral Healthcare industry. Barrins & Associates was founded by Anne Barrins who was a Joint Commission surveyor for 13 years.

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