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Promoting Quality and Safety through Standards

Core measures developed by the Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have provided goals and standards for improved patient care. One element of the core measures is pneumonia. The performance measures for patients diagnosed with pneumonia were developed in a collaborative effort including the Joint Commission (TJC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (The Joint Commission, 2014). The core measures for pneumonia stipulate the timely collection of blood cultures and administration of appropriate antibiotics (RN.com, 2013). It also focuses on the 30-day readmission rate (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013). According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in 2007, pneumonia was one of the seven conditions that account for nearly 30% of potentially preventable readmissions within 15 days of hospital discharge (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013). Healthcare organizations report their performance as a percentage of compliance to TJC and CMS, which then effects both accreditation and reimbursement (RN.com, 2013).
The increasing emphasis on quality of care, patient safety, and clinical care outcomes has resulted in impressive advances in patient care. For example, PeaceHealth/St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham Washington was able to reduce complications and mortality associated with severe sepsis and septic shock by increasing compliance with the Sepsis Resuscitation Bundle (Lindquist et al., 2014). From 2007 to 2009 mortality rates from severe sepsis dropped from over 40% to 17% as a result of implementing