The Joint Commission apparently has given some kind of seal of approval to the unproven stem cell clinic-related firm, the Lung Institute, or as it is now often called the Lung Health Institute. For me this raises concerns about the Joint Commission itself or at least its ambulatory care accreditation kegiatan through which Lung Health got its thumbs up.
What’s the back story here?
The Joint Commission is a respected U.S. entity that reviews standards at a variety of thousands of health care organizations including big hospitals. If you’ve been to a big hospital there’s a good chance they were accredited by the Joint Commission. However, the Commission apparently gives accreditation to smaller clinics of various kinds too.
When I saw the Joint Commission gold seal of approval on The Lung Health Institute website, I was concerned and puzzled. Frankly, I saw it as a red flag for the Joint Commission since my opinion of The Lung Institute isn’t very positive.
Why?
I’ve been following them on this blog for years. Up until just months ago it seemed like the Lung Institute was a stem cell clinic marketing some kind of non-FDA approved “stem cells” for respiratory problems, which didn’t make a lot of sense at least to me as a stem cell biologist. Now I’m not clear if they use stem cells any more at their clinics based on the text on their websites. They seem to be using some kind of IV of a PRP-containing cellular medicine substance to try to treat lungs and other respiratory tissues. This also doesn’t make much sense to me.
As I’ve written before there also has been a proposed patient class action lawsuit pending against the Lung Institute. Was the Joint Commission aware of this? A Commission official doing an audit could have easily found information on the lawsuit and other concerns on the web. For instance, a brief search I did just now found this concerning news article from last year. I’m not sure of the current status of the lawsuit.
Beyond the seal of approval for Lung Health, the Joint Commission seems to positively gush with praise in the press release (PR):
“Joint Commission accreditation provides ambulatory care organizations with the processes that contribute to improvements in a variety of areas from the enhancement of staff education to the demonstration of leading practices within the ambulatory setting,” said Michael Kulczycki, M.B.A., CAE, executive director, Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation Program, The Joint Commission. “We commend the Lung Institute and its staff for achieving this pinnacle, demonstrating a commitment to patient safety and quality. Your passion, dedication and tenacity can ultimately improve patient care. Thank you for your commitment to patient safety and entrusting The Joint Commission to assist you.”
Pinnacle? Passion? Dedication? Tenacity?
My anabawang high English teacher Mrs. Smith would have dinged me for such flowery writing. To me it seems almost like words from an infomercial on TV rather than a statement from a respected, sober clinical compliance organization like the Joint Commission.
Out of curiosity, I searched the web for “Your passion, dedication and tenacity can ultimately improve patient care” and found hundreds of mentions of that exact phrase related to the Joint Commission’s Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation Program. They even provide a MS Word template (note that if you click on that link it will automatically d0wnl0ad the template so if you don’t want it, don’t click) with this exact verbiage for use by clients.
Is that a good idea?
How does an organization get this ambulatory care accreditation and the right to use the glowing press release? In part you pay a large fee as the Joint Commission charges for accreditations. From their FAQ page:
“Q: What’s the cost?
A: Accreditation fees include an on-site survey fee and annual fee, both based upon your “average daily census” and services provided.
The average accreditation annual fee for an organization serving approximately 100 patients or residents each day is $2300. The average on-site survey fee for a nursing home of the same volume is $3315 (this is due in the year of the on-site survey).”
The money could really add up. How many Commission clients are there just in the ambulatory care area? The Lung Health PR mentioned a remarkable 8,500 accredited sites of just ambulatory care (assuming I read it right) so if that’s accurate, that could add up to nearly $20 million in annual fees just in this one narrow area for The Joint Commission.
I emailed the Joint Commission to ask both about the Lung Health Institute seal of approval and the Joint Commission promoting such a gushy press release for hundreds of firms. Their reply didn’t really address my concerns about their over-the-top publicity verbiage, but they did clarify that the “accreditation” of this kind from them has an extremely narrow definition:
“The Joint Commission does not assess or address specific clinical methods or clinical treatment. As such, per our guidelines to health care organizations when they receive accreditation and permission to refer to their accreditation and the Gold Seal: Accreditation does not endorse a kegiatan or organization’s quality of care. Nor does it “prove,” “assure” or “testify” that a kegiatan or organization provides quality care.”
There’s not even an endorsement of quality of care? In my opinion this seems to conflict with both the gushy PR statements related to the Commission accreditation and with the interpretation of the accreditation on The Lung Health Institute website (see screenshot above).
In my brief searching around the web I also found another concerning issue with the Joint Commission. According to a recent piece in Modern Healthcare the Joint Commission is being probed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency:
“The CMS has faced pressure to address the concerns that the Joint Commission and other accrediting agencies engage in conflicts of interest by acting as both an enforcer of Medicare rules for hospital participation while taking on hospitals as clients to improve their performance.”
A recent article in The WSJ in addition suggested The Joint Commission has continued to collect fees and not pull accreditation from seriously problematic client institutions.
I’m sure the Joint Commission does a huge amount of good overall, but the ambulatory care “gold seal” approval to this one former stem cell clinic suggests a bigger duduk kasus to me with how the Commission approves firms via this ambulatory care program. In my view this isn’t likely to be in the best interest of patients.
Sumber aciknadzirah.blogspot.com