title: The Joint Commission aims for high-reliability health care, unveils framework to move hospitals toward zero harm.
abstract: To move hospitals toward what it terms high-reliability, The Joint Commission (TJC) is urging administrators to use a framework that it has developed to push their organizations through stages of maturity, ultimately creating environments in which there is zero patient harm. To get to this point, TJC leaders say hospitals will have to commit to transparency, promote and reward error reporting, and seize upon opportunities to improve. The Joint Commission has tested its high-reliability framework in seven hospitals, and it is now working on an assessment tool that will enable hospitals to measure their level of maturity across the framework's 14 components. The accrediting agency is urging hospitals to use a combination of Six Sigma, lean, and change management to make improvements that can be sustained. At some hospitals, entrenched practices of intimidation are dissuading staff from reporting unsafe practices and interfering with quality improvement efforts, according to TJC.
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D058996:Quality Improvement; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States