The Joint Commission released its annual list of the 10 standards that posed the greatest challenges for accredited office-based surgery practices in 2017.
While the list of the challenging standards for ambulatory healthcare organizations remained largely the same as 2016, only half of the standards that were the toughest for office-based surgery practices last year remained on the 2017 list.
The Joint Commission identifies the most common challenges by analyzing standards compliance data. Here are the top 10 challenges for office-based surgery practices, based on an average of 104 surveys. New additions to this year's list are in bold.
1. IC.02.02.01: The practice reduces the risk of infections associated with medical equipment, devices and supplies.
2. HR.02.01.03: The practice grants initial, renewed or revised clinical privileges to individuals who are permitted by law and the organization to practice independently.
3. EC.02.04.03: The practice inspects, tests and maintains medical equipment.
4. MM.03.01.01: The practice safely stores medications.
5. IC.02.01.01: The practice implements infection prevention and control activities.
6. NPSG.03.04.01: Label all medications, medication containers and other solutions on and off the sterile field in perioperative and other procedural settings.
7. HR.01.06.01: Staff are competent to perform their responsibilities.
8. EC.02.05.07: The practice inspects, tests and maintains emergency power systems.
9. WT.04.01.01: The practice performs quality control checks for waived testing on each procedure.
10. MM.01.01.03: The practice safely manages high-alert and hazardous medications.
Here are the five standards from the 2016 list that didn't make this year's top 10.
1. IC.01.03.01: The practice identifies risks for acquiring and transmitting infections.
2. NPSG.07.01.01: Comply with either the current CDC hand hygiene guidelines or the current WHO hand hygiene guidelines.
3. IC.01.05.01: The practice plans for preventing and controlling infections.
4. IC.02.04.01: The practice offers vaccination against influenza to licensed independent practitioners and staff.
5. WT.03.01.01: Staff and licensed independent practitioners performing waived tests are competent.