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Accreditations

​The Joint Commission Accreditation

Adventist Health St. Helena is accredited by The Joint Commission, who accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. The mission of The Joint Commission is to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safety and effective care of the highest quality and value. In order to gain accreditation by The Joint Commission the Hospital must pass an unannounced site visit by Joint Commission surveyors, who follow patients through care processes, and who interview and observe physicians, nurses and other care providers as they interact with patients, while assessing their compliance to rigorous Joint Commission standards.

Hospital National Patient Safety Goals – The purpose of the National Patient Safety Goals is to improve patient safety. The goals focus on problems in health care safety and how to solve them. Adventist Health St. Helena has worked toward implementing all of these goals, and continually works to improve and monitor compliance with each of the goals cited below:

Identify patients correctly

  • Use at least two ways to identify patients. For example, use the patient’s name and date of birth. This is done to make sure that each patient get the correct medicine and treatment.
  • Make sure that the correct patient get the correct blood when they get a blood transfusion

Improve staff communication

  • Get important test results to the right staff person on time.

Use medicines safely

  • Before a procedure, label medicines that are not labeled. For example, medicines in syringes, cups and basins. Do this in the area where medicines and supplies are set up.
  • Take extra care with patients who take medicines to thin their blood.
  • Record and pass along correct information about a patient’s medicines. Find out what medicines the patient is taking. Compare those medicines to new medicines given to the patient. Make sure the patient knows which medicines to take when they are at home. Tell the patient it is important to bring their up-to-date list of medicines every time they visit a doctor.

Use alarms safely

  • Make improvements to ensure that alarms on medical equipment are heard and responded to on time.

Prevent infection

  • Use the hand cleaning guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization. Set goals for improving hand cleaning. Use the goals to improve hand cleaning.
  • Use proven guidelines to prevent infections that are difficult to treat.
  • Use proven guidelines to prevent infection of the blood from central lines.
  • Use proven guidelines to prevent infection after surgery.
  • Use proven guidelines to prevent infections of the urinary tract that are caused by catheters
  • Identify patient safety risks Find out which patients are most likely to try to commit suicide.

Prevent mistakes in surgery

  • Make sure that the correct surgery is done on the correct patient and at the correct place on the patient’s body.
  • Mark the correct place on the patient’s body where the surgery is to be done.
  • Pause before the surgery to make sure that a mistake is not being made.

Source: The Joint Commission

Advanced Disease Certification for Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement – The Joint Commission

Adventist Health St. Helena was one of the first hospitals in the United States to achieve Advanced Certification for Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement by The Joint Commission. This certification focuses on the quality and reliability of transitions of care from the pre-surgical orthopedic consultation to the intraoperative, hospitalization admission, rehabilitation activities and follow up visit with the orthopedic surgeon. Certification is achieved through a site survey and compliance with rigorous standards regarding orthopedic surgery, as well as ongoing submission of quality data to The Joint Commission.

Learn more about Adventist Health St. Helena’s Joint Commission accreditation and certification status.