Presenting a successful stroke education model to meet the Joint Commission's Disease-Specific Care Certification

Development of a Joint Commission Disease-Specific Care Certification Program for Parkinson Disease in an Acute Care Hospital

BACKGROUND

Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) admitted to the hospital for any reason are at a higher risk of hospital-related complications. Frequent causes include delays in administering PD medications or use of contraindicated medications. The Joint Commission Disease-Specific Care (DSC) program has been used to establish a systematic approach to the care of specific inpatient populations. Once obtained, this certification demonstrates a commitment to patient care and safety, which is transparent to the public and can improve quality of care.

METHODS

We formalized our efforts to improve the care of hospitalized patients with PD by pursuing Joint Commission DSC. An interprofessional team was assembled to include nurses, therapists, physicians, pharmacists, performance improvement specialists, and data analysts. The team identified quality metrics based on clinical guidelines. In addition, a large educational campaign was undertaken. Application to the Joint Commission for DSC resulted in a successful June 15, 2018 site visit. To our knowledge, this is the first DSC program in PD in an acute care hospital.

CONCLUSION

Using the established platform of DSC certification from the Joint Commission, we developed a program based on relevant metrics that aims to address medication management of patients with PD admitted to the hospital. Our hope is to improve the care of this vulnerable patient population.

Hospital Disease-Specific Care Certification Programs and Quality of Care: A Narrative Review

BACKGROUND

Disease-specific care certification (DSCC) programs have been developed to improve the quality and performance of programs or services that may be based within or associated with a hospital or other health care organization. A comprehensive summary of evidence for DSCC programs and their reported effect on the quality of care was prepared in a narrative review, the first of its kind on this topic.

METHODS

A systematic search was performed to identify articles that reported about DSCC. Any article that reported DSCC and certifications, published between 2003 and August 2015 (with an update in March 2016), and conducted in the United States was included. Databases searched included PubMed, MEDLINE, and CINAHL.

RESULTS

The articles were reviewed in terms of four topics: early development of DSCC, the journey toward DSCC, the relationship between DSCC and organizing process of care, and the relationship between DSCC and outcomes of care. Fifteen articles noted a positive relationship between DSCC programs and quality of care, only 6 of which reported empirical data. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were not warranted. Only 3 articles involved use of sophisticated statistical modeling with adequate control variables to investigate the effect of DSCC, which makes it difficult to conclude that the change in hospitals' or patients' outcomes were related to the certification.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority (13) of the articles focused on Joint Commission DSCC, with the remaining assessing Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care "accreditation" (certification). Only two studies, each study using a cross-sectional design, that empirically examined the relationship between DSCC and outcomes of care-mortality of care and readmission. More research studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of DSCC programs in improving outcomes of care, particularly patient-centered outcome measures, such as patient satisfaction and self-care.