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The Business of
Health Care Report
The Joint Commission, which has evaluated health care facilities
since 1951, is an independent, non-profit organization and the world's largest health care standards-setting and
accrediting body. It periodically evaluates and accredits more than 19,000 health care organizations around the world,
including the 13 hospitals of Texas Health Resources. In a nutshell, the Joint Commission serves as an independent reviewer
of hospital operations. Hospitals, in turn, use Joint Commission evaluations to augment their own internal quality initiatives.
About 50 percent of commission standards are directly related to quality and patient safety. In the past several years, the Joint Commission has surveyed all THR
hospitals and home health agencies. The results, on a scale of 100, were all in the 90s with an average score of almost 97
percent. Only 10 percent of accredited hospitals nationwide scored higher than 97. In an effort to make the accreditation process more thorough, the
Joint Commission recently added the ORYX initiative, which integrates outcomes and other performance data into the
accreditation process. ORYX is intended to be a flexible and affordable way for hospitals to enhance quality improvement. Beginning in July 2002, accredited hospitals that participate in the
ORYX initiative will collect data in four core measurement areas for Joint Commission evaluation and feedback. These
include acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, community-acquired pneumonia, and pregnancy and related conditions. The primary goal of these efforts is to give health care consumers -
each of us at some point in our lives - the peace of mind that comes from knowing their health care meets quality standards. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO Doug
Hawthorne with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio
1080 KRLD.
©
2002 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 