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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesLuis Hospital Receives Unannounced Visitor

Luis Hospital Receives Unannounced Visitor

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations gave an unannounced regular on-site evaluation of the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital this week, hospital officials said Thursday. The survey began Tuesday and ended Thursday. A full report will shortly be produced and published at the Joint Commission website.
The Joint Commission is the main hospital and health care accreditation organization in the United States. Established in 1951, it is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 U.S. health care organizations and programs. They re-accredit hospitals every three years. Juan Luis Hospital is fully accredited.
Juan Luis last had a full, tri-annual survey in 2007, and was due for an unannounced survey sometime this year. Darice Plaskett, the hospital’s interim chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The survey will determine the hospital’s level of compliance with the Joint Commission standards. The process "provides education to our staff, assists us in continuously improving our patient care services, and improves our day to day delivery of sound management practices,” Plaskett said.
This regular survey comes on the heels of a for-cause evaluation last month, triggered by confidential complaints to the Joint Commission. Nothing was flagged that posed a direct threat to patients, Wendy Schaeffer, director of media relations at the hospital, said at the time. Rather, inspectors raised issues with hospital labeling protocols, the content of hospital manuals and technical procedural matters. Out of over 400 elements of procedure subject to review, the surveyors flagged eight in its preliminary findings, she said.
Although it has maintained continuous accreditation, in 2008 the commission gave Juan Luis a preliminary denial of accreditation. A preliminary denial happens when there are enough unmet standards to justify denial of accreditation at the time of the survey, according to the Joint Commission website. The decision is preliminary, pending all appeals, and the hospital retains its accredited status until appeals are exhausted. The hospital appealed and in June of 2009 its three-year accreditation was reinstated.
The Joint Commission’s website: www.qualitycheck.org has a wealth of information. Put in the name of any accredited hospital to look at the specific strengths and weaknesses found in that hospital’s most recent survey. The final report on this week’s evaluation will be available there once it is complete.

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