The Joint Commission expects action on it's Maternal Mortality standards. Plus cyberattacks, influenza, and water shortages in healthcare

As of January 1, 2021, you will have one less thing to worry about: The Joint Commission (TJC) is eliminating its requirement that hospitals set a goal toward achieving a 90% vaccination rate under Infection Prevention and Control standard IC.02.04.01.

Review your hospital policies about preventing ransomware and other outside cybersecurity attacks on your electronic health information systems. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a joint advisory along with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) earlier this week warning hospitals and health systems about an "increased and imminent cybercrime threat."

Social and economic factors, such as housing, healthy food, and income, can drive up to 80% of health outcomes, making them critical components in any “whole-person” approach to healthcare. In general, SDoH go a long way in determining both the access and quality of care available to people.

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The steadily climbing maternal mortality rate in the U.S. has (appropriately) attracted a great deal of media attention over the last few years.

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the rate has more than doubled since 1987, reaching an alarming high of 17.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. That is well above the Healthy People 2020 goal of 11.4.

Worse, the CDC estimates that 60% of maternal deaths reviewed in a study were preventable. Stopping those would result in easily meeting and surpassing the Healthy People 2020 goal.

With more droughts and heat waves expected in upcoming years, it’s time for hospitals and clinics to be more water-conscious

Climate change is making the world hotter and drier, with more intense heat waves and droughts expected in upcoming years. While this can lead to more intense wildfires and hurricanes, it also impacts our most basic necessity—water.

Roughly 73.6 million Americans were experiencing a drought during the week of October 7–13, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System, with droughts deemed “extreme” and “exceptional” in 22 states from the West Coast to New England.

In addition, as clean water becomes harder to find, it becomes more expensive. And healthcare facilities use a lot of water.

Delayed six months by the coronavirus pandemic, two new maternal health standards by The Joint Commission (TJC) will finally go into effect as of January 1, 2021.

The standards—PC.06.01.01 on reducing the harm from maternal hemorrhage and PC.06.03.01 on reducing harm related to maternal severe hypertension/preeclampsia— are in the July 2020 standards manual update. However, hospitals are not being held to the requirements until January.

Earlier this year, TJC issued an R3: Requirement, Rationale, Reference report discussing the standards and offering resources on how to implement compliance with the effort “to improve the quality and safety of care provided to women during all stages of pregnancy and postpartum.”