Thank you, Bill Dubbs April 13, 2008
Posted by keepbreathing in hospital, respiratory therapists, respiratory therapy.Tags: respiratory therapy, JCAHO, healthcare
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If you think about it, JCAHO has no incentive to promote quality because if healthcare wasn’t perceived as a problem they’d have no reason to exist. I’ve ranted about my dislike of the joint commission before.
Apparently the latest shenanigans from JCAHO include an attempt to make ancillary services such as respiratory care, physical therapy, radiology, and lab/path report to a nursing director instead of reporting to their own directors. This effectively removes any hope that RT, rads, or path can have of being run by managers who have any interest in their departments beyond how they can serve the needs of nursing*.
Fortunately for those of us in the “ancillary world,” the AARC has sent a scathing letter to JCAHO informing them that they are in fact morons. I quote from their scathy wrath (emphasis mine):
On behalf of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and its 46,000
members, I want to take this opportunity to provide comment regarding the proposed
revision of Standard/EP: NR.01.01.01,EP2. As the Standard reads, if adopted, ancillary
services such as pharmacy, physical therapy and respiratory therapy will be required to
provide service under the coordination of the nurse executive. This requirement, if
adopted, will eliminate flexibility in organizational structure for hospitals. The standard
as currently written is flexible enough to permit the organization of ancillary services
under the nurse executive or under another individual such as a vice president for clinical
services who is not a credentialed nurse, but rather holds a graduate degree in health care
administration, or another related area.
Under the current rule, hospital CEOs have options to exercise based on the needs of the
institution. Why eliminate flexibility when it’s unnecessary to do so? It makes no sense
for the Joint Commission to virtually micromanage the tables of organization for
hospitals providing a wide range of clinical services which include both nursing services
as well as ancillary services under the umbrella term “patient care programs.” The
standard does not have to be revised to permit the nurse executive to accept
administrative responsibility for all clinical services, and therefore only requires revision
if the goal of the Joint Commission is to eliminate qualified persons acting in the role of executive vice president for clinical services from doing what they’re currently employed to do.
Why not take a moment of your time and send an e-mail to Mr. Bill Dubbs of the AARC and thank him for taking a stand for respiratory therapists everywhere? Advocates like Mr. Dubbs help to develop our profession and help to protect the best interests of us RTs, and their hard work should not go unrewarded.
*Nurse managers and nursing directors: you know you just want the ancillary staff to kowtow to you. Don’t deny it.
Fuck them. I’ll keep stocking grocery shelves before I go under the direction of nursing.
I agree. Goodbye any and all protocols or anybody giving a flying frak about our profession. I could see this ending very badly.
Oh my god! So a Pharm-D (pharmacist’s have doctorates now!) and a Physical Thearpist with a master degree will have to report to a Nurse who could have a 2 year RN?
I am just commenting on the education piece.
What the hell….
I agree that a clinical director can be anyone with the knowledge and experience and a medical certificate of some sort.
I just don’t understand it. Nursing is nursing, and nurses can be in charge of nurses. WTF
Actually, I flunked out of pharmacy school. When I was an intern I refused to accept scripts called in by a nurse (unless they were an NP of course). It was illegal at the time. We can only accept called in scripts from the clinicans who were actually percribing them.
I pissed off alot of LPNs and RNs.
Someone stop the insanity!!!
Hmm, thank God we don’t have JCAHO. And why are they calling RT ancillary?
This is insane! JCAHO is so removed fom the realities of patient care, and so ignorant of the capabilities of those who provide it, that their recommendations are becoming more absurd and distructive every year. I am a registered nurse, and I am ashamed that I, and my fellow nurses, are being implicated in this insult to you, who I am proud to call colleagues. I apologize on behalf of my profession for this outragous attack on yours. JCAHO has now passed beyond the realm of irrelevancy, deap into the domain of idiocy! This nonsence will hurt patients, and no thoughtful nurse will support it.
“Nurse managers and nursing directors: you know you just want the ancillary staff to kowtow to you. Don’t deny it.”
No, we do NOT want that. Please do not think that the JCAHO represents nurses. NO! They do not. No more than they represent RTs, PharmDs, or anyone else who actualy provides patient care. We respect our colleagues in respiratory therapy and pharmacy. As a profession that still struggles to defend its own boundries, we support you in maintaining yours. I promise you, the typical clinical nurse (real nurses, not JCAHO drones) will support you in maintaining the professional autonomy that you have clearly earned.
I understand why you are angry. As a registered nurse, I am angry too. But let’s attack the real problem: JCAHO and its drones. We are not enemies. Whatever disagreements there may be between us, we are on the same side on this issue. Let’s put any other differences aside and stand together on this one. It is wrong. We all know it. We agree on it. Please, we are not enemies. You are in the right, and we will stand with you!
Looks like we won one for a change. Check out the AARC’s website for an update…