Joint Commission Behavioral Health Update
June 2017
In This Issue:

Greetings to Our Colleagues in Behavioral Healthcare!
We hope you have begun to enjoy the summer season in your part of the country!
 
This month, our first article provides an update on how TJC is surveying ligature risks in psychiatric settings - currently a major focus area during surveys. Our second article addresses the topic of competency assessment, which continues to be a challenge for many behavioral health organizations.

We value your feedback on the newsletter. Please send us your comments and tell us what topics you would like to see in future issues. We look forward to hearing from you! Also, feel free to to your colleagues.

Anne Barrins
President/CEO
Ready for the SAFER Methodology on your Next TJC Survey?
Be prepared for how the new SAFER (Survey Analysis for Evaluating Risk) scoring methodology will affect your next survey. Contact us now to learn how this new approach is impacting both psychiatric hospitals and BH organizations.
1-877-546-7206
Tip of the Month
Check out the article in Psychiatric News (the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association) on psychiatry's role in building a culture of safety in behavioral healthcare. It's co-authored by Yad Jabbarpour, MD of Catawba Hospital and Julia Finken, TJC's Executive Director of the BH Accreditation Program. The article promotes the critical role of psychiatrists in instilling a culture of safety in their organizations.
Why Choose
Barrins & Associates?

"We were extremely satisfied with our Barrins & Associates consultation. Not only did they identify areas for improvement but they also gave recommendations in detail on how to process and address the affected areas, which was very helpful for us moving forward."

Dwight Lacy
CEO, Millwood Hospital
Arlington, Texas
Update on TJC Surveying of Ligature Risks
If you are a psychiatric hospital anticipating a TJC survey, it's important to know the details of how TJC is currently surveying ligature risks. They recently provided an update for the field on this topic in follow-up to their March 2017 communication on the scoring of ligature, suicide and self-harm risks. Here are some highlights from this most recent update. 
Competence Assessment by a Qualified Individual
TJC HR Requirement
Twenty-two percent of behavioral health organizations surveyed in 2016 received a survey finding related to competence assessment. Frequently, the finding relates to a staff person or contractor not having their clinical competence assessed by an individual qualified to do so. The relevant standard is HRM.01.06.01 EP 2 in the BH Manual and HR.01.06.01 EP 3 in the Hospital manual. Learn how this standard is typically reviewed by surveyors.
NEW CLIENTS
Barrins & Associates welcome three new clients:  Valley Hospital in Phoenix, ArizonaQuail Run Behavioral Health in Phoenix, Arizona, and DCCS Consulting, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.   We are pleased to be working with these organizations on regulatory and accreditation compliance. 
Barrins & Associates is pleased to be working in partnership with DCCS Consulting to support the regulatory readiness needs of their client Anoka-Metro Regional Treatment Center in Anoka, Minnesota. We look forward to supporting the hospital's continuous regulatory compliance through this partnership.
Congratulations corner!
Congratulations to our client, Casa de Amparo in San Diego, California, who recently achieved initial Joint Commission accreditation.
Barrins & Associates provides Joint Commission and CMS consulting services for the Behavioral Healthcare industry. Our clients include psychiatric hospitals and freestanding Behavioral Healthcare organizations. We specialize in providing Survey Preparation and Continuous Survey Readiness services for the Behavioral Healthcare industry. Barrins & Associates was founded by Anne Barrins who was a Joint Commission surveyor for 13 years.