The JCAHO seeks to set performance measures for its new Health Care Staffing Services Certification Program. The program, developed to meet quality oversight needs that have arisen in recent years as a result of significant, ongoing shortages of nurses and other professional personnel, aims to provide an independent, comprehensive evaluation of an agency's ability to provide competent staffing services by Oct. 1, 2004
Staffing firms, certified by the Joint Commission, will be required to use the standardized set of measures, which will allow for national comparisons among agencies that provide temporary nurses and other professional personnel to health care organizations. Specifically, JCAHO seeks performance measures related to five domains that the Health Care Staffing Task Force and Advisory Council identified as being key factors in the performance of health care staffing service firms. Domains and key measurements areas in those domains include: coordination of services (service to client organization); coordination of services (client organization to service); outcomes; organization/system factors and; safety.
To submit candidate measures for consideration, visit http://www.jcaho.org/dscc/hcss/pm.htm The deadline for submitting information about performance measures is July 9, 2004.