at Ohio Specialty Surgical Suites.
"The Joint Commission is really big on lifestyle changes," she says.
"Things like encouraging patients to quit smoking, maintaining a
healthy weight, getting proper nutrition, making sure they exercise
and blood clot prevention. They've actually made us more aware of
the things that we're trying to educate patients on."
Show me the evidence
Both centers say they've also been enlightened by the Joint Commission's
strong allegiance to evidence-based medicine, as opposed to what Ms.
Scott calls the I-had-a-bad-experience-once, so-now-I-do-this approach.
"Myths get adopted in health care," she says. "But we've really
changed our philosophy. Now when something is suggested, we say,
let's consider it, where's the evidence, what's this based on?"
That doesn't mean everything is set in stone. But if you're proposing
something new, "you have to be able to show that it's based on nation-
ally accepted clinical practice guidelines and that it's evidence-based,"
says Ms. Scott. If you can, "they [the Joint Commission] are fine with
it, but you're going to have to back it up.
"Our program elements are now very much standardized," she adds.
"If a doctor wants to be in our program, he has to go along with stan-
dardized order sets." Fortunately, after some initial resistance, the phi-
losophy has taken root, she says: "It was a hard battle, but it turned
around. I hear doctors say it now: 'Where's the evidence?'"
Impressive distinction
Of course, one of the big benefits of certification is that it provides a
strong promotional vehicle. As Ms. Scott puts it, "It's nice to have
somebody besides you who thinks your program is good."
Ohio Specialty Surgical Suites is advertising its certification in news-
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