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This paper summarizes the roles and responsibilities of two major healthcare organizations: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). I will open by providing a brief history of each organization. Next I will discuss what each organization does as it relates to health and safety issues. Finally, I will explain how each of the two organizations ensure the safety of patients and workers.

 

"The Congress finds that personal injuries and illnesses arising out of work situations impose a substantial burden upon, and are a hindrance to, interstate commerce in terms of lost production, wage loss, medical expenses, and disability compensation payments. The Congress declares it to be its purpose and policy ... to provide for the general welfare, to assure so far as possible ... healthful working conditions ..."(OSHA, 2009, http://www.osha.gov/). So began the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 - commonly known in business as OSHA. Enacted by the Senate and House, OSHA's presence is ubiquitous in American business.

 

One thing OSHA does as it relates to health and safety issues is study diseases and there impact on the work environment. "OSHA explores ways to discover latent diseases, establishing causal connections between diseases and work in environmental conditions, and conducting other research relating to health problems ..." (OSHA, 2009, http://www.osha.gov/). OSHA also conducts health and safety research "including the psychological factors involved, and by developing innovative methods, techniques, and approaches for dealing with occupational safety and health problems" (http://www.osha.gov/). Without an agency to study diseases and working environment and link it to employees psychological state of mind, companies would most likely not be willing to pay for the research themselves as it would affect their bottom line.

 

While OSHA cannot be every place at once, they do have methods to ensure the safety of American workers. For one thing, OSHA is legally enforceable. Employers do not have a choice to be OSHA compliant or not. Furthermore, OSHA is legally not required to give advance notice to any company that they are coming for an inspection. The OSHA rules clearly state it has a "prohibition against giving advance notice of any inspection" to a company or individual (OSHA, 2009, http://www.osha.gov/). OSHA also provides video and brochure training programs for managers and employees - often times for free. Also, the OSHA Review Commission is charged with "carrying out adjudicatory functions under the Act" (http://www.osha.gov/). As you can see, OSHA is a huge part of American business and it does not focus on just one industry for safety (i.e. health or manufacturing) but all industries fall under OSHA law and guidelines.

 

Unlike OSHA, which is broadly focused throughout American Business, the Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is more narrowly focused on well ... you guessed it - healthcare. JCAHO is "a private, not-for-profit organization committed to improving safety and quality of care by providing standards, survey evaluations, sentinel event alerts, and professional consulting services to health care organizations. In its main capacity as an accrediting body, JCAHO evaluates and accredits approximately 18,000 health care organizations" (Franko, 2002, findarticles.com). The organization was spurred on when it was realized that nurses (and other medical providers) were unaware of the important role they played in providing good physical as well as psychological care to patients.

 

JCAHO "sets standards for healthcare organizations and issues accreditation to organizations that meet those standards." Furthermore, JCAHO "addresses an organization's performance in key functional areas. Each standard is presented as a series of "Elements of Performance" (EP) -- expectations that establish the broad framework that JCAHO surveyors use to evaluate a facility's performance" (PGH, n.d., http://www.hercenter.org/).

 

Unlike OSHA, JCAHO is not a government regulatory program. As such, JCAHO cannot levy fines against medical facilities that break their rule standards. Be that the case, the "Joint Commission standards carry considerable weight. Failure to meet these standards as evaluated through the JCAHO survey process can result in loss of accreditation, which can mean the loss of millions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid programs" (Franko, 2002, findarticles.com). The amount of loss revenue to a medical facility can be devestating. Therefore, it is best to maintain health and safety standards that conform to JCAHO accreditation rules.

 

References

 

Franko, Frederick. (2002). The important role of the Joint Commission - Health Policy

Issues - Joint Commission Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. Retrieved

February 5, 2009, at:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSL/is_6_75/ai_88576001

Healthcare Environmental Resource Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, at:

http://www.hercenter.org/regsandstandards/jcahointro.cfm

Practice Green Health (PGH). (n.d.). Environmental Compliance and Improvement

Guide. Retrieved February 5, 2009, at:

http://cms.h2e-online.org/ee/regsandstandards/jcaho/

United States Department of Labor. (2009). OSHA. Retrieved February 5, 2009, at:

http://www.osha.gov/

 

Expert:	Rick Lee, BA
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:
Answered:	2/5/2009

Teacher

Studied both writing and journalism