You are on page 1of 4

JCAHO Initiative Q & A

We have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding JCAHOs patient safety initiatives and the subsequent release of Medi-Spans Supplemental Name Files. Please contact our Customer Support Department if we can be of any assistance with additional questions.

Questions
What are JCAHO and ISMP? Why is Medi-Span making these changes? Does JCAHO accreditation apply to me? Where can I get a list of JCAHO requirements? What is Medi-Span doing to be compliant with the requirements? Will JCAHO add additional abbreviations, acronyms or symbols to their requirement in the future? 7. Will the changes Medi-Span is making impact record lengths of current drug files? 8. Will the Product Description Abbreviation field be 100% compliant? 9. Can I use Sub-Q in place of SC for subcutaneous? 10. Will this affect your clinical products? 11. How will this affect GPIs? 12. I receive my products semi-monthly. How will these changes affect me? 13. What is the timing for all of these changes? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Answers
1. What are JCAHO and ISMP? The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO) is a standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare. JCAHO (http://www.jcaho.org/) evaluates and accredits more than 16,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. As an independent, not-for-profit organization, JCAHO is the nations predominant standards setting and accrediting body in healthcare. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) (http://www.ismp.org/) is a nonprofit organization that works closely with healthcare practitioners and institutions, regulatory agencies, professional organizations and the pharmaceutical industry to provide education about adverse drug events and their prevention.

2. Why is Medi-Span making these changes? JCAHO is a standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare. In their recent 2004 JCAHO National Patient Safety Goals they released a listing of abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols that may lead to medication errors and designated that these no longer be used in healthcare systems subject to their accreditation. JCAHO provides a list of mandated abbreviations to be removed as well as a recommended list. In addition to required changes mandated by JCAHO, the ISMP has recommended additional replacements of abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations to further ensure patient safety. Medi-Span is actively working to bring our products into compliance with JCAHOs patient safety goals as they apply to abbreviations associated with drug therapy. We will resolve the mandated and the recommended lists from JCAHO. The additional recommendations from ISMP will be addressed, where possible, in the existing fields. 3. Does JCAHO accreditation apply to me? JCAHO (http://www.jcaho.org/), the nations predominant standards setting and accrediting body in healthcare, evaluates and accredits more than 16,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. If you are unsure, you may want to check with your management to see if your organization is subject to JCAHO accreditation. 4. Where can I get a list of JCAHO requirements? A list of abbreviations, acronyms and symbols that may lead to medication errors can be found at: http://www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/04+npsg/04_faqs.htm# goal%202 5. What is Medi-Span doing to be compliant with the requirements? Due to the inability to resolve all the JCAHO mandated and recommended prohibited abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols in the Product Description Abbreviation (PDA) and rather than changing the length of this field in MDDB and SDDB resulting in major reprogramming in systems, we will provide Supplemental Name Files. This is a subset of files from Medi-Spans MED-File where the field sizes are larger and provides adequate space for JCAHO compliant drug names and strengths. The Supplemental Name Files will provide a link from the NDC to the Drug Descriptor ID (DDID) and the file that defines the DDID as well as the data dictionary, validation, and error correct files. The DDID is a 6-digit number that associates a 30-character, mixed case product name; 2-digit route field; 4-character dosage form field; 15-character strength field; and a 10-character strength unit of

measure field. The fields and their full descriptions from the validation file can be concatenated together to create a longer, more descriptive label name that can resolve the mandated and recommended prohibited abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols from JCAHO. For further information, please see the JCAHO Technical Bulletin of May 21, 2004. If you are interested in receiving the Supplemental Name Files, please contact our customer support at 1-800-388-8884. 6. Will JCAHO add additional abbreviations, acronyms or symbols to their requirement in the future? At this time, Medi-Span does not anticipate that there will be additional abbreviations, acronyms or symbols added by JCAHO. Should JCAHO decide in the future to expand their list, Medi-Span will make the necessary changes. 7. Will the changes Medi-Span is making impact record lengths of current drug files? At this time no field or record lengths will be changed. 8. Will the Product Description Abbreviation field be 100% compliant? Due to space constraints, Medi-Span cannot guarantee 100% compliance in the Product Description Abbreviation (PDA) field. If your organization seeks to attain 100% compliance with JCAHO recommendations, you are advised to use the Drug Description fields of the Drug Descriptor ID in place of the PDA. 9. Can I use Sub-Q in place of SC for subcutaneous? The use of Sub-Q will be JCAHO compliant, but does not meet the ISMP recommendation that the word subcutaneous be spelled out in full. 10. Will this affect your clinical products? Indirectly, yes. The areas most affected by JCAHO guidelines and ISMP recommendations within Medi-Span clinical products are those related to textual information. This text is not used directly to be translated into prescribing functions, but is primarily supporting information. Medi-Span clinical product text areas are being reviewed and processes are underway to comply with JCAHO and ISMP recommendations. Items such as abbreviations (e.g., replace IU or U with Unit) and recommendations on the use of leading zeros and elimination of trailing zeros on strength and dosage information are being addressed.

11. How will this affect GPIs? The GPI value will not change. GPI descriptions will change however, based on both the JCAHO guidelines and the ISMP recommendations. The greatest numbers of changes made were to replace IU or U with Unit or Unt. Other changes included replacing CC with ML and the spacing between the GPI Strength and Strength Unit Of Measure fields (where possible) within the descriptions. Refer to the table in the Medi-Span JCAHO Technical Bulletin to determine what actual changes will impact the GPI descriptions. 12. I receive my products semi-monthly. How will these changes affect me? The Supplemental Name Files will not be available on a semi-monthly basis. If you currently receive a semi-monthly product, you need to transition to a weekly product. 13. What is the timing for all of these changes? Supplemental Name Files o Documentation available no later than August 4, 2004 o Supplemental Name Files will be available no later than August 4, 2004 (note, the final data changes will be completed no later than October 6, 2004) Data changes for the following began in May and will be completed no later than the October 6, 2004 data releases. Fields affected by the data changes include: o MED-Files Drug Name, Strength, and Strength Unit of Measure o GPI Name o MDDBs Metric Strength and Strength Unit of Measure and the Ingredient Metric Strength and Ingredient Strength Unit of Measure o SDDBs, MDDBs, Price-Chek PCs, and MDDB Select for Windows Product Description Abbreviation

You might also like