The Joint Commision announced today that they are planning to continue regularly scheduled inspections of hospitals during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Experts at the JC are touting that the importance for the inspections to continue should be our number one priority at this time to ensure the safety of patients in the United States.
“Because it is risky for us to be in contact with COVID patients, we have elected to continue our inspections and tracer patients via Zoom,” stated JC chairmen, Robert Sneathers. “All we are asking is that hospitals designate a separate team to don PPE and carry a camera for us to trace the patients in the ICU or operating rooms. There should be lots of free staff sitting around that hospitals could easily tap to assist. Should be a simple fix for hospitals to maintain their esteemed Joint Commission certificate.”
GomerBlog asked Sneathers what would the Joint Commission be specifically looking at in order to help hospitals prepare for their Zoom inspections. “Well, we of course will be looking at expiration dates of N-95s. We have heard stories of healthcare professionals reusing these masks more than once which is appalling to hear. We fully recommend only using the N95 masks once, so we are already drafting new rules to hopefully change this outrageous practice.”
Sneathers also mentioned they will specifically look at timeouts, making sure no equipment or ventilators are setup in advance of a patient being in the room, and obviously making sure there is no food or drink at the Nurses station.
“We are excited to play an important role in helping our colleagues and patients during this COVID-19 outbreak,” proclaimed Sneathers. “We are happy to stay far, very far, out of the way to let the men and women of healthcare do their job. But, hospitals can also rest assured that we will be able to continue accreditation during this pandemic.”
“I want to ensure every hospital CEO and healthcare professional that we will not have to shut down any hospitals during the pandemic for missing an inspection. Zoom is becoming a game changer for us and healthcare!”
