I received an email from HLS-list yesterday about JCAHO and the Standard Improvement Initiative (SII). The SII includes the deletion of IM.4.10 (Information-Based Decision Making) and IM.5.10 (Knowledge-Based Information).

Eliminating both of these standards is "detrimental to medical libraries, which in turn is detrimental to our patrons providing quality patient care services." Carla Funk and Katherine Stemmer Frumento will be sending a letter expressing concerns with the changes and will also attend the annual Liaison Symposium next month, to try and persuade “the powers that be” to rethink this decision.

Meanwhile, you can also express your concern and disapproval of the changes through an online survey. The survey includes comment boxes for you to express your opinion. In her email to the HLS-list Kathy reminds us to word the comments in a positive way, because as her mother always said, “You can catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar.”

The survey can be found at
http://www.jointcommission.org/Standards/SII/sii_im_personal_perspective.htm

Take a little bit of time out of your day to express your concerns. As Kathy says, "If every HLS member completes the survey, it will send a message that we are a united association, which has strong feelings on the topic."

Labels: Hospital Libraries