I keep hearing more absurd edicts from the joint commission. They've banned certain commonly worn shoes called crocs. They've banned pens that go around your neck. They also seem to have many other annoying and time consuming requirements. I think they are ruining bedside nursing. They seem to think that the more forms filled out, the better.
Yesterday I had a vent pt with restraints. We have a stupid restraint form that needs a million boxes filled every hour. It totally loses it's meaning and does nothing to improve care, but my manager has to worry more about this form than a million more important things. She's always reminding us to fill in the million boxes. I just check them off ahead of time. The pt had many other more important things going on, being on several drips, Q 1 hour blood sugars, and I was taking off orders all day long.
Anyways, I think the regulators have become a self-perpetuating bureaucratic entity in my opinion.
They are now issuing edicts to justify their own existence. The more things they find to ensure patient safety, the more paper work the nurse has, thus taking more time away from the bedside, and hindering the safety they seek to ensure.
Specializes in ER,Neurology, Endocrinology, Pulmonology.
Honestly, I am glad there is an organization that ensures standards, but some of the things they come up with are rediculous and impossible to comply with. If I had time to assess restraints every 5 minutes and label all 10 suringes I am carrying to the patient's room, I would be glad to do that. As long as I have to answer my lights, do bedpans, pass tays, feed patients, listen to patient's complaints and then keep them safe and medicated too, have no time for unreasonable rules.
The stupidest thing I heard of from JCAHO in our organization was that we no longer label our medexes/MARs with pt allergies. The theory is that a) it's double documentation (then get rid of it everywhere else, for dang's sake) and b) you're supposed to be verifying allergies with the patient instead of relying on the medex.
A couple issues I have with that jazz:
1) If there is anywhere I WANT double, redundant documentation, it is with my patient's allergies. On my MAR.
2) Ok, fine, I will verify my patient's allergies with my patient. That is, assuming I have a patient who is verbal, alert, and oriented. But I am still going to put that on my MAR. And if you don't like it you can kiss my fat tail goodbye. So far no one has said anything.
I'm sure someone else can find more issues than that.
I think the point behind JCAHO is good, but their methods leave room for improvement.
I think the point behind JCAHO is good, but their methods leave room for improvement.
AWARD for the understatement of the YEAR!!!
What do I think of JCAHO? I try NOT to if I can help it LOL. Personally, I like having Allergies listed everywhere, especially when the allergy list the patient gives me is only HALF of what my computer then shows from their previous 50 admissions this year. People have no idea about their own health and I will write allergies every damn place available if it means I can skip the Incident report when they have a reaction .
I agree with the above posters who said it best. Facilities should try to be compliant ALL the time, not just when it's survey time. Especially when it comes to staffing! Wouldn't you adore having your floor staffed every day just like it is for survey day?
Pipe dream. JCAHO thinks up stuff to justify their own existance.. and when they DO hit on something that might actually help, they bury it in yet another silly form that it'll take us months to remember to use (assuming we HAVE the new form, it's been approved, we're not out of them... etc).
I think the point behind JCAHO is good, but their methods leave room for improvement.
What do I think of JCAHO? I try NOT to if I can help it LOL. Personally, I like having Allergies listed everywhere, especially when the allergy list the patient gives me is only HALF of what my computer then shows from their previous 50 admissions this year. People have no idea about their own health and I will write allergies every damn place available if it means I can skip the Incident report when they have a reaction .
OMG, You all make me feel better. We had our survey last year. Even the CEO felt sorry for me. We have a very small home health agency, 50 home health patients and an average of 5 hospice patients. We had 3 surveyors for our agency. The reasoning was that we were trying to go deemed status. This way we wouldn't have a state survey. We would have been better off not going deemed. Every standard we were cited on, we were cited twice, once for joint commission, once for the conditions of particpation/code of federal regulations. Our hospital, by the way, had one nurse surveyor and one physician surveyor.
Our surveyors were vultures! Some of the standards are so stupid. Like the fact that you have to have an order for an O2 sat. Please. They said it isn't their rule, it is the rule of the american respiratory therapist assoc.
They wanted us to list apgars on all of our pediatric patients. I'm sorry, but do apgars really matter after the baby is discharged from the hospital?
I hate to admit this, but they made me cry. I was a mess for a week after they left. So, now we have to have another survey, sometime in the next few months. I have been busting my you know what doing chart audits for the last few months. I hope we pass, or I might not have a job.
If the surveyor says that you need a MD order to get 02 sats, ask to see the standard that they are referencing. If they can't show it to you in black and white, then it is a "personal intrepretation" and not a standard we have to follow. Each surveyor has a pet that they like to focus on. The next one might not care at all. All the standards are available, and I ain't never failed an open book test. So just make sure that it is in the book.:nurse:if not :smiley_ab
moh_sir
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