Question: Are hospitals inspected regularly?
From: Lisa M.

Answer: If you’ve ever worked in a hospital, you’ve probably lived through an inspection by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and/or that state’s Department of Health. As a hospital patient, you may even be interviewed by a member of an inspection team. JCAHO is a private organization mostly comprised of healthcare professionals. An inspection team includes a physician, a Registered Nurse, and a hospital administrator. JCAHO accredits about 80% of the country’s hospitals as well as home health agencies, hospices, clinical laboratories, and ambulatory surgical centers. Accreditation by JCAHO is voluntary and the facility pays for the survey but it makes the facility automatically eligible for Medicare reimbursement. JCAHO surveys are done every 3 years. In the past, JCAHO announced its regular and follow-up visits months or weeks in advance. This came under much criticism leading the Commission to visit unannounced but still every 3 years. Hospitals are rated on over 500 performance standards.

In addition to JCAHO, all 50 states and U.S. territories contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to inspect healthcare facilities.

These inspections are intense but are intended to provide patients with excellent safety and care and provide hospitals with “gold standards.”