Introduction
Accreditation is the process of ensuring that organizations have measured up to acceptable set standards. It is normally conducted by governments, non-governmental organizations or even by privately held accreditation agencies who review the already existing standards according to the emerging demands of any given field. In view of rising health care costs, health providers are increasingly finding it important to undergo accreditation in order to uphold a certain status quo thereby maintaining their clientele. Accreditation standards vary as time progresses since there is always an improvement to the already set criteria. Organizations normally subject themselves to continuous accreditation not only for the purposes of maintaining a certain position in a particular field but also to expose their staff to learning of new requirements and developments in their fields. Organizations use the current accreditation standards as a benchmark as they pursue improvements of their own services. (Abdelhak, 2001)
Discussion
Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is one of the accreditation agencies which was started in early 1950s as a collaboration of American College of surgeons and many other organizations. Initially the collaboration was so that it could provide voluntary accreditation though that changed when the organization started offering accreditation to health care networks. It was however not until 1994 that the agency included other accreditation services namely laboratories services, home care, drug abuse among others. (Lisette, 2004)
Recording and documentation plays a very important role in ensuring efficiency of any organizations and more importantly health care since historical study of a patient can go a long way in identifying reoccurrences that can eventually lead to prevention if not a complete cure of the disease. Since 2004, JCAHO became more sensitive to drug safety and that meant that health care facilities had to adopt a separate medication management standard. This measure was for the purposes of reducing drug errors and abuse, ensuring drug follow ups, and basically inspection of drugs equipment standards. (Lisette, 2004)
JCAHO management standards are documented from the time of selection which is basically the where and the type of drug. This helps in authenticating the source of the drug and thus the assurance of the drug quality. The drug is then kept just at the right temperature to ensure that its chemical status is not tempered with. When eventually the drug is needed, ordering must be documented to ensure accurate timing from then till the drug intake. Accurate transcription must be adhered to for both the pharmacist’s and patient’s references and that too must be recorded. (Huffman, 1994)
There must also be documentation on drug preparation procedures this include classification of drugs either as high or low risk, include also their concentration levels etc. After preparation, the drug will obviously need to be dispensed to the patient and this is also must be documented. Dispensing documentation includes the time, measure of the drug and of course by which member of staff and name of the patients. Finally but by no means not least drug administration must go to the records followed up by the monitoring measures. (Abdelhak, 2001)
Conclusion
It would be useless for any organization to come up with rules and measures that nobody follows or cares to consider needless to say. Therefore accreditation bodies must have ways of ensuring that their rules are adhered to. Accreditation agencies actually encourage their clients in compliance by offering incentives such educational seminars that help them understand the importance and the consequences of either compliancy or negligence thereof. Other agencies offer monetary aid to their clientele which includes insurance subsidies and allow them to use accreditation in case any legal actions are taken against them. (Taylor and Brownstein, 2004)
There are also organizations that provide their clients with accreditation procedures which in turn help service providers regulate themselves and therefore are able to effortlessly compile. Governments and NGOs have gone a step ahead and have set up check up calendar that sensitizes the organization on compliance matters. Any given standard has loopholes and accreditation is not a guarantee of perfection but it definitely protects consumers from a great deal of danger that would otherwise harm them.
Reference
Abdelhak M. (2001) Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource, Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders
Huffman E (1994), Health Information Management Berwyn Ill. Physicians’ Record Company
Lisette H (2004) JCAHO’S Accreditation Process. Web.
Taylor J and Brownstein D (2004): Use of Incident Reports by Physicians and Nurses to Document Medical Errors in Paediatric Patients National Patient Safety Foundation