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Resources

Information Management Resources for Hospital Accreditation

A resource for MLA members who are preparing for accreditation in clinical and educational health care settings

To top of page Accreditation Organizations

To top of page Accreditation Advice

  • The MLA liaison to the Joint Commission, Judy M. Kraemer, can answer questions concerning Joint Commission information management (and other pertinent) standards.
  • JC surveyors
    • The Joint Commission itself will send biographical sketches of the surveyors scheduled to visit you and tell you the last three sites visited by each surveyor. To get this information, call the Joint Commission at 708.916.5600 and ask for the Department of Accreditation Operations.
    • Also search MEDLINE and CINAHL to see if surveyors have published or have been the subject of articles.
    • Post on or search discussion lists (see below).

To top of page Discussion Lists

The following discussion lists cover issues related to the Joint Commission standards and accreditation process. To subscribe to these lists, send an email with the body of the message being subscribe [listname] to the addresses given below.

  • Joint Commission-WATCH is a discussion list intended for hospital staff directly involved in accreditation to communicate with colleagues. It is especially useful for learning how other hospitals handle specific issues.
  • A query to MEDLIB-L about a surveyor will likely result in a response from someone recently surveyed. Respondents usually feel more comfortable responding to you personally rather than to the list. More general questions about accreditation issues or other topics appropriate to health sciences librarianship are also welcome.
  • CANMEDLIB-L
  • HLS JC Wiki MLA's Hospital Libraries Section Joint Commission Wiki. Click on link to sign in or create a new account.

To top of page Workshops

  • Standards Is Not a Four Letter Word
     Instructor: Katherine Stemmer Frumento; 4 MLA contact hours.
    This course reviews the Joint Commission's current IM standard, as well as other Joint Commission standards that the hospital library can support. The major goal of the course is to demonstrate how a hospital library's value within its institution can be shown not only through Joint Commission validation, but also through other accreditation bodies, as well as solid customer service.

To top of page Library Standards

To top of page Other Resources

  • Joint Commission Resources (JCR)
     JCR is the source for books, journals, and accreditation manuals of the Joint Commission. Includes journals Joint Commission Perspectives, Joint Commission Perspectives on Patient Safety, Environment of Care News, Joint Commission Benchmark, and Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety.
  • DocKit #10: Accreditation and the Hospital Library: Information Management Plans and Assessment Tools
    Compiled by Kay E. Wellik, AHIP; Mary J. Jarvis, AHIP; and Connie Schardt, AHIP. MLA, 1997. (Currently out of print; may be available via ILL).     The JCAHO Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals includes guidelines for obtaining, managing, and using information to improve patient outcomes and individual and hospital performance in patient care, governance management, and support process. DocKit #10 provides examples of information management (IM) plans, institutional responses to IM plans, and assessment tools.
  • Professional Competencies for Health Sciences Librarians, MLA's Educational Policy Statement
  • A Librarian's Guide to a JCAHO Accreditation Survey
    The purpose of this guide is to provide answers to questions that librarians might have about the Joint Commission accreditation process as it relates to libraries and information services.
  • Librarian's Survival Kit
    This resource kit was developed by the MLA Task Force on the Role of the Librarian and headquarters staff to help promote the value of a health sciences librarian and the services provided to an institution.
  • "Proactive roles for librarians in the JCAHO accreditation process" Rand DC, Gluck JC. Journal of Hospital Librarianship 2001;1(1):25-40.
  • Raising the bar: the importance of hospital library standards in the continuing medical education accreditation process. Gluck JC, Hassig R. Bull Med Libr Assoc 2001 Jul;89(3):272-6.
  • "Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century" from the Special Libraries Association.

Revised January 2003 by .

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