West Reading, PA.– Tower Behavioral Health has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for accreditation by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The Gold Seal is a symbol of quality that reflects a healthcare organization’s commitment to providing safe and quality patient care.
Tower Behavioral Health underwent a rigorous, unannounced on-site review from September 16-18. During the visit, a team of Joint Commission reviewers evaluated compliance with the hospital’s standards spanning several areas, including life safety and emergency management, environment of care, infection prevention and control, performance improvement, national patient safety goals, leadership, medication management, information management, rights and responsibilities of the individual, provision of care, treatment, and services.
The Joint Commission’s standards are developed in consultation with healthcare experts and providers, measurement experts, and patients. They are informed by scientific literature and expert consensus to help healthcare organizations measure, assess, and improve performance. The surveyors also conducted on-site observations and interviews.
“As a private accreditor, The Joint Commission surveys healthcare organizations to protect the public by identifying deficiencies in care and working with those organizations to correct them as quickly and sustainably as possible,” says Mark Pelletier, RN, M.S., chief operating officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations, and chief nursing executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend Tower Behavioral Health for its continuous quality improvement efforts in patient safety and quality of care.”
To prepare for the evaluation Tower Behavioral Health underwent daily COVID-19 “huddles” to make sure that both employees and patients were following guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A few examples of this were practicing social distancing, daily screenings and temperatures for all employees, and required mask usage. Tower Behavioral Health also focused on patient safety through completion of the suicide risk assessment upon admission, during each shift, and at discharge. The facility monitored patient safety through daily leadership rounds, safety huddles, and oversight of patient observation rounds. These practices are still in place today.
“Our facility prides itself on being a safe and supportive place for patients to work toward long-term recovery,” said Stephanie Lee, Tower Behavioral Health CEO. “We’re thrilled to learn that we lived up to the high standards The Joint Commission requires for its Gold Seal of Approval®.”
An additional area of emphasis for Tower Behavioral Health is the focus on priority areas as defined by its leadership team. This specifically included writing policies for the facility with careful consideration of both CMS and Joint Commission standards to maintain the gold standard in patient care. Another priority is documentation, which was addressed by doing 100% chart audits with daily meetings to identify areas for improvement.
For more information, please visit The Joint Commission website.
