Billings Clinic Awarded Certification from Joint Commission for Hip Replacement

Billings, MT – Billings Clinic’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine has earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ for health care quality. The Joint Commission awarded Billings Clinic Disease-Specific Care Certification for hip replacement.

To earn this distinction, a disease management program undergoes an extensive, unannounced, on-site evaluation by a team of Joint Commission reviewers every two years. The program is evaluated against Joint Commission standards through an assessment of a program’s processes, the program’s ability to evaluate and improve care within its own organization, and interviews with patients and staff.

“This certification means Billings Clinic does the right things and does them well for hip replacement patients,” says Jean E. Range, M.S., R.N., C.P.H.Q., executive director, Disease-Specific Care Certification, Joint Commission.

“Billings Clinic voluntarily pursued this comprehensive, independent evaluation to enhance the safety and quality of care we provide,” says Matthew Kopplin, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Billings Clinic orthopedic and sports medicine department. “We’re proud to achieve this distinction.”

Certification requirements address three areas:

• Compliance with consensus-based national standards and safety goals.
• Effective use of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to manage and optimize care.
• An organized approach to performance measurement and improvement activities.

Disease-specific programs that successfully demonstrate compliance in all three areas are awarded certification for a two-year period. At the end of the first year, the organization is required to attest to its continued compliance with standards and provide evidence of performance improvement activities. To maintain certification, the cycle repeats with an on-site review conducted every two years and a bi-annual submission of an acceptable assessment of compliance by the organization.

Certified programs are required to regularly submit data to The Joint Commission through a secure extranet site. Standardized performance measures are currently available for two advanced certification programs ? Primary Stroke Centers and Heart Failure programs.

Quality Reports for Joint Commission certified Disease-Specific Care Programs are available on the Quality Check™ Web site, http://www.qualitycheck.org/. In 2009, a new “Certified Organizations” tab has been added to the site.

The Joint Commission launched its Disease-Specific Care Certification program in 2002. It is the first program of its kind in the country to certify disease management programs. A list of programs certified by the Joint Commission is available at www.jointcommission.org.

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 nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 8,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,800 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, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about the Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.