Healthcare Matters

An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized as a symbol of quality that reflects a hospital’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards. Standards that, under the Affordable Care Act, continue to evolve by type and importance.

Should you care? Yes. A hospital’s CMS Certification Number (CCN) is the hospital’s identification number that is directly linked to its Medicare provider agreement. In other words, the CCN is used for CMS certification. Most hospitals seeking to participate in Medicare’s new reimbursement programs are not only required to satisfactorily complete the Medicare enrollment application, but also to be certified as complying with Medicare’s changing standards. For example, the CCN is now used for submitting and reviewing a hospital’s cost reports which are obviously part of the new calculus that will determine reimbursements under shared savings programs.

So, the Joint Commissions latest report, “Improving America’s Hospitals: The Joint Commission Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2012”; a report that recognizes 620 hospitals that are leading the way nationally in using evidence-based care processes, is a bit more significant than a new plaque for the lobby. The hospitals identified as attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability performance in 2011 represent only 18 percent of Joint Commission-accredited hospitals reporting core measure performance data.

But, the list of Top Performers did increase more than 50 percent to 620 hospitals from its debut last year, and 244 of the hospitals named in the new report are appearing on the list for the second year in a row. The designation is based on performance related to new accountability measures for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma care, inpatient psychiatric services, venous thromboembolism (VTE) care, and stroke care.

Said Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, M.P.P., MPH, president of the Joint Commission. “Making the Top Performers list is no easy feat. I salute these organizations for their hard work in attaining excellence. By consistently using evidence-based treatments, their patients are getting better hospital care.”

Sources: PR Newswire, Joint Commission

—Tom Finn