The Joint Commission Releases Interim Staffing Effectiveness Standards
The Joint Commission (TJC) recently released interim staffing effectiveness standards for its hospital and long term care certification programs that will become effective July 1, 2010. TJC defines staffing effectiveness as the appropriate level of staffing to provide the best possible outcome in a particular care setting. The original standard, introduced in 2002, required tracking of certain indicators to detect staffing problems, and from there to determine if there was a relationship between the staffing level and patient care. Feedback indicated that the standard did not really address the issue, yet its implementation was very costly. TJC implemented the interim standards until such time as it completes its review of the current standards.