Dear Colleagues:

Congratulations and thanks are in order following the positive reviews Brigham and Women’s Hospital gained from the Joint Commission. Our hospital and our Pathology Department’s Clinical Laboratory accreditation surveys went as well as we could have hoped. It’s never easy to face such intense scrutiny, but I am proud to say the Joint Commission repeatedly commented that all of us at BWH consistently demonstrated our deep commitment to patient safety and excellent patient care.

However, we must realize that all the efforts that went into preparing for our Joint Commission surveys must continue. We are subject to a one-day, unannounced validation survey from the Joint Commission, and we have hundreds and even thousands of surveyors come through our doors every day—our patients.

The Joint Commission shares our commitment to delivering the safest care to patients, and we welcome its scrutiny. Our preparation for the surveys challenges us to take a hard look at ourselves, review our daily practices and routines and ensure that we meet the strictest of standards. Survey or no survey, our standards are consistent with those of the Joint Commission, and constant self-evaluation is a hallmark of BWH.

When we look at the Joint Commission’s eight National Patient Safety Goals, it’s obvious how closely each of them reflect our own priorities and goals at BWH. Improving the accuracy of patient identification and communication among caregivers are tantamount to what we do everyday for our patients and what we teach our residents and medical students. We have spent the better part of the last decade investing millions of dollars to improve the safety of using medications with bar coding and eMAR long before there were any National Patient Safety Goals.

So our vigilance to ensure the safest patient care is not a matter of simply getting ready for a one-week survey. Rather, it’s being fully prepared every day and committed to providing every patient with the safest care. I’m happy to say that’s the impression we made on Joint Commission surveyors who visited us last month, and I’m proud to say that’s the impression we give our patients every day.