TJC’s Accreditation and Certification Operations Executive Vice President Ann Scott wrote to GMHA interim Administrator Rey Vega on Dec. 7, notifying him of GMH’s accreditation status being changed to “Accreditation with Follow-up Survey.” The decision, Scott wrote, was made following a Dec. 6 meeting in which the accreditation team reviewed the survey findings and GMH’s corrective action plan.
Scott said the decision is effective for all services surveyed under the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals.
However, Vega said the accreditation downgrade “means nothing” to him, except that GMH should expect a follow-up survey within the next two months.
“Based on our responses, we are confident that The Joint Commission will find us fully compliant with all the elements of standard of care,” he said.
Vega predicted TJC would downgrade GMH’s accreditation status, as he had mentioned to the Committee on Health on Human Services during a roundtable discussion on GMH’s status last month.
A number of issues have surfaced following GMH’s accreditation in June 2010, such as medication and laboratory supply shortages, questionable practices by nursing and physician staff, retirement fund contribution issues, building safety and compliance issues, billing and collection issues, and overcrowding.
The September TJC surprise survey came within a few weeks of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid citing GMH for numerous Life Safety Code deficiencies “of such a character as to pose immediate jeopardy to the health or safety of the agency’s patients.”
CMS, however, granted GMH a temporary waiver to address the deficiencies by Dec. 30. If GMH loses its Medicare provider certification, it could also mean losing millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements.
Vega said GMH is on track towards meeting the Dec. 30 CMS deadline.
