The Joint Commission outlined four ways it's working to improve survey reliability for interpreting ambulatory care standards.
Here are the key details to know:
1. The Joint Commission is making changes to its Survey Analysis for Evaluating Risk (SAFER) methodology by establishing a measurement system to identify whether individual surveyors had placement patterns "different" from those of their peers. Previously, the methodology was noted as being inconsistent for ambulatory care surveyors.
2. The new system uses SAFER data from January 2017 to the present to create average distribution data for each standard and element of performance.
3. The Joint Commission developed "anchor cases" with examples of findings and recommended SAFER placement. The anchor cases are intended to provide guidance for ambulatory care surveyors to assign SAFER placement.
4. The Joint Commission's Consistent Interpretation Technology initiative provides ambulatory care surveyors with guidance, including a database. Through the initiative, ambulatory care surveyors have access to:
• Search mechanisms to quickly locate the correct EPs for their survey findings by using other surveyors’ observations.
• Guidance in determining condition-level deficiencies versus standard-level deficiencies for deemed status surveys.
• Near real-time updates, corrections and additions to the standards database.
• State requirements and FAQs.
5. The Enterprise Core Curriculum is a new education curriculum for The Joint Commission's enterprise staff covering standards and EPs through simulations and exercises.