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| Date:
July 10, 2008 |
Skilled Nursing, Inc. Staffing and Search. ® Earns Joint Commission
Re-Certification
Horsham, PA, July 10, 2008:Skilled Nursing, Inc. Staffing and Search (SNI) announces that it has earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ for Health Care Staffing Services from The Joint Commission.
SNI Staffing and Search supplies RN and NP staffing, search and consulting solutions to hospitals, healthcare facilities, employers, the pharmaceutical industry, software vendors and integrators.
Since it’s founding in 1980, SNI focused on providing independent options for nurses while taking a leadership role in quality and compliance with nationally established standards and professionalism in the industry. SNI established one of the earliest programs to measure medication safety in 1980 and began specialty testing prior to placement. The practice of leading in standards and individual accountability for practice continues today with a client and nurse report card in pilot.
SNI underwent its first survey in 2005, as one of the first 8 in the country to pursue this level of distinction. After receiving its first certification, SNI went on to participate in the first Joint Commission pilot to establish standards of performance for the staffing industry. Marty Minniti, founder and CEO, continues the practice of SNI in a nursing leadership and an early adaptor mode with active participation and board membership in one of the nation's top regional collaborative to improve patient safety (the Health Care Improvement Foundation and Partnership for Patient Care). This opportunity to participate with regional leaders allows SNI to adopt and align in principle and practice on a daily basis.
Ms. Minniti states, “We believe that healthcare institutions will require Joint Commission Certification and the Gold Seal as evidence of high quality standards and select to partner with those staffing services who have achieved such certification. Certification recognizes SNI's dedication to supply healthcare professionals that are qualified to provide safe, up to date high-quality care and service to patients, employees and managers. We are honored to receive the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval and to participate in partnership with regional hospital specific initiatives furthering our client’s ability to meet their own JC and Magnet accreditations.
The Joint Commission certification program offers an independent, comprehensive evaluation of a staffing agency’s ability to provide quality-staffing services. According to Michele Sacco, the Executive Director of Business Development for the Joint Commission, “The Health Care Staffing Services Certification provides a comprehensive evaluation of key functional areas such as processes for verifying the credentials and competence of health care staff. Standards also address topics such as leadership, managing human resources, performance measurement and improvement, and information management. These critical issues are important to both staffing firms and the health care organizations that rely upon those firms. Now, health care organizations have a third-party source of information to assist them in making choices among staffing firms and supports efforts to improve the quality of care delivered to their patients.”
Founded in 1951, the Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 7,800 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 7,300 other health care organizations that provide long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities. In addition, the Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs and primary stroke centers. An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission is the nations’ oldest and largest standards setting and accrediting body in health care.
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| Date:
April 17, 2006 |
Skilled Nursing, Inc.
® Earns Joint Commission
Re-Certification
Horsham, PA, April 17, 2006:
Skilled Nursing, Inc.® has again earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ for
Health Care Staffing Services. The Joint Commission
on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has
awarded Skilled Nursing, Inc.®
the Health Care Staffing Services Certification for
two additional years.
Skilled Nursing, Inc.®
met the Joint Commission’s national standards
addressing how staffing firms determine the
qualifications and competency of their staff, how
they place their staff and then monitor staff's
performance.
"Health care organizations that contract with
Skilled Nursing, Inc.®
can look to this certification as an assurance that
Skilled Nursing, Inc.®
demonstrates a commitment to providing and
continuously improving quality services," says
Michele Sacco, Executive Director, Health Care
Staffing Services Certification, Joint Commission.
The ongoing shortages of nurses and other health
care professionals have forced health care
organizations to increasingly fill positions with
temporary workers through contractual arrangements
with staffing firms. The Joint Commission
certification program was launched in October 2004
to offer an independent, comprehensive evaluation of
a staffing firm's abilities to provide competent
staffing services.
"Certification represents Skilled Nursing's
dedication to providing nurses and nurse
practitioners that are qualified to provide safe,
high-quality care to patients," says Marty Minniti,
CEO. "We're proud to be awarded the Joint
Commission's Gold Seal of Approval. Earning this
distinction is good for our nurses, the Nursing
Agency industry, and us. I encourage all Nursing
Agencies to become JCAHO certified.”
Marty Minniti went on to say, “We will continue
to seek meaningful opportunities which measure our
ability to provide competent nursing to our
clients. I also want our client facilities to
experience SNI’s ability to satisfy the new JCAHO “unannounced” Hospital Accreditation requirements.
I want our clients to be confident that whenever it
is their turn to undergo the accreditation process,
SNI will do its part, to help them shine.
“I am very grateful that my agency is celebrating
its 26th anniversary this year. I
sincerely believe that our success is due largely to
the high caliber of nurses and professional staff
who have associated themselves with SNI over the
years and the great rapport we have established with
our clients,” said Minniti.
Contact: Terry Aisenstein, RN, Communications
Coordinator
Phone: 267-532-1620
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Date: May 23, 2005 |
Skilled Nursing, Inc. ® Awarded Joint Commission
Certification
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Horsham, PA, May 5, 2005: Skilled Nursing, Inc. ®(SNI) a privately and locally owned Pennsylvania Nurse Staffing agency, has achieved the Gold Seal of Approval TM for health care staffing services. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has awarded SNI Health Care Staffing Services Certification for one year.
SNI met national standards addressing how staffing firms determine the qualifications and competency of their professional nursing staff, how they place the nurses and then monitor the nurses' performance.
"Health care organizations that contract with Skilled Nursing, Inc. ® can look to this certification as an assurance that SNI demonstrates a commitment to providing and continuously improving quality services," says Michele Sacco, executive director, Health Care Staffing Services Certification, Joint Commission.
Martha Jean Minniti, R.N. B.S., CEO and Founder of SNI is delighted to receive this most recent professional acknowledgement during SNI's 25th anniversary year.
When interviewed, Ms. Minniti cited the growing competition between the hospitals to be the best at what they do. "It is essential for each of them to achieve accreditation. It is their seal of good standing". Beginning in 2006, JCAHO surveyors are taking a new approach by conducting "unannounced" hospital surveys spending the majority of time on the patient floors evaluating the direct care a patient receives, in contrast to the old announced survey format. This new approach creates a large set of unpredictable dynamics for the surveyed facility. "We want our hospital clients to rest assured that professionalism, competency and patient safety are the same predictable fixed standards of high quality nursing they have grown accustomed to experiencing whenever using SNI Nurses" said Minniti.
Marty Minniti went on to say, "I volunteered to have my agency surveyed because I wanted our client facilities to have the confidence that our temporary nurse workforce will be educated and prepared to meet the new JCAHO "unannounced" format their hospitals will experience; and that the SNI nurses can be relied upon to do their part to help the facility shine when undergoing Accreditation. My agency is celebrating its silver jubilee this year and I am proud to state that this benchmark was possible because of the caliber of nurses who associate themselves with SNI. It was only natural for us to be one of the first to earn Accreditation. Our entire company is delighted to be one of the first 20 Nurse Staffing agencies in the country to be surveyed and accredited by JCAHO. It was a very challenging process but I personally believe that every agency should be accredited to show their commitment to the hospitals that use temporary nurses to fill staffing vacancies."
"Certification recognizes SNI's dedication to providing registered nurses that are qualified to provide safe, high-quality care to patients and ease the burden to healthcare facilities in this time of a critical nursing shortage. We are extremely proud to receive the Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval."
The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization and is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.
Contact: Terry Aisenstein, RN, Communications
Coordinator
Phone: 267-532-1620 |
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Date: May 23, 2005 |
| 2008 National Patient Safety Goals - Hospital Program |
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Goal 1 |
Improve the accuracy of patient identification. |
1A |
Use at least two patient identifiers when providing care, treatment or services. |
Goal 2 |
Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers. |
2A |
For verbal or telephone orders or for telephonic reporting of critical test results, verify the complete order or test result by having the person receiving the information record and "read-back" the complete order or test result. |
2B |
Standardize a list of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations that are not to be used throughout the organization. |
2C |
Measure and assess, and if appropriate, take action to improve the timeliness of reporting, and the timeliness of receipt by the responsible licensed caregiver, of critical test results and values. |
2E |
Implement a standardized approach to “hand off” communications, including an opportunity to ask and respond to questions. |
Goal 3 |
Improve the safety of using medications. |
3C |
Identify and, at a minimum, annually review a list of look-alike/sound-alike drugs used by the organization, and take action to prevent errors involving the interchange of these drugs. |
3D |
Label all medications, medication containers (for example, syringes, medicine cups, basins), or other solutions on and off the sterile field. |
3E |
Reduce the likelihood of patient harm associated with the use of anticoagulation therapy. |
Goal 7 |
Reduce the risk of health care-associated infections. |
7A |
Comply with current World Health Organization (WHO) Hand Hygiene Guidelines or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hand hygiene guidelines. |
7B |
Manage as sentinel events all identified cases of unanticipated death or major permanent loss of function associated with a health care-associated infection. |
Goal 8 |
Accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum of care. |
8A |
There is a process for comparing the patient’s current medications with those ordered for the patient while under the care of the organization. |
8B |
A complete list of the patient’s medications is communicated to the next provider of service when a patient is referred or transferred to another setting, service, practitioner or level of care within or outside the organization. The complete list of medications is also provided to the patient on discharge from the facility. |
Goal 9 |
Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls. |
9B |
Implement a fall reduction program including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program. |
Goal 13 |
Encourage patients’ active involvement in their own care as a patient safety strategy. |
13A |
Define and communicate the means for patients and their families to report concerns about safety and encourage them to do so. |
Goal 15 |
The organization identifies safety risks inherent in its patient population. |
15A |
The organization identifies patients at risk for suicide. [Applicable to psychiatric hospitals and patients being treated for emotional or behavioral disorders in general hospitals—NOT APPLICABLE TO CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITALS)] |
Goal 16 |
Improve recognition and response to changes in a patient’s condition. |
16A |
The organization selects a suitable method that enables health care staff members to directly request additional assistance from a specially trained individual(s) when the patient’s condition appears to be worsening. [Critical Access Hospital, Hospital] |
* Source: The Joint Commission
| We have put together a presentation on National Patient Safety Goals for 2008. Click here to access it. Note: Note: PowerPoint is required.
You can test your knowledgde of National Patient Safety Goals for 2008 by taking a short survey here |
SNI promotes cultural diversity and cultural sensivity. Please click onthe image below to launch a PowerPoint presentaion on cultural diversity.
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Copyright 2008; SNIStaffing.com