In the world of today and even from the time in memorial, organizations have had some code of conduct developed with the sole aim of monitoring the conduct behavior of the members. This is not only limited to the organizations such as healthcare as it is in this case but rather it is a common norm in the society from the larger perspective. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), 2008, provided some policies by organizations by January 2009 of which it defined the codes of conduct of employees.
In order to understand the meaning of these policies it is important to bring into context the 2008 JCAHO policy by means of its description. The policy is aimed at improving accuracy of patient identification, communication among caregivers, improve safety in regard to use of medications and reduce risk in heath care-associated infections. In connection to this, it is also committed to accurately and completely reconcile medications across the whole care system. Also, as a safety strategy, the patient should actively get involved in their own care. Moreover, JCAHO identifies safety risks inherent in the population of patients. Above and beyond, it improves recognition and response to patient’s condition (The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2008).
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Sentinel Event when used in this context brings about the meaning of any unanticipated event in a setting of a healthcare resulting to injuries of the patients beings manifested in various ways. It may be an event leading to death or serious injuries as mentioned which may be physical or psychological injuries affecting the patient or patients from a generalized point of view. In most cases, Sentinel events include loss of a gross motor function or a limb and from a broader point of view any event whose recurrence may lead to adverse outcomes. It is within the goals of JCAHO to make an identification of such events under its policies in order to help establish the root cause (The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2008). Along with this, it assists in developing of preventive measures.
In line with this, the purpose of Sentinel event reporting is meant to solicit as well as develop preventive measures that adhere to the dictates of JCAHO code of conduct. In essence, a code of conduct in a hospital in this case can be defined as the set rules and guidelines that define the acceptable behavior or conduct in a healthcare that is accepted on the basis of ethics. Such a code of conduct is meant for the national patient safety goals (The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2008).
Since JCAHO is committed to ensure safety and quality health services for over 1800 care organizations in the United States, it has the authority to accredit a hospital for meeting the stipulated code of conduct. In the same line of thought, if one is unable to meet the requirements of JCAHO, Medicare and Medicaid programs benefits can be limited to such organizations. As such, JCAHO however does not have authority to fine or cite an organization that has failed. However, JCAHO carries a lot of weight of which it can lead to loss of million dollars from Medicare and Medicaid programs by failing to meet JCAHO standards. If a facility does not comply with JCAHO, its reputation, devaluation of the organization's stock and community alarm can be the consequential loss (The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2008).
In another organization elsewhere for community development, there is a code of conduct policy. Being well acquainted with the policy, it is a violation of it if one serves self interests rather than the interests of the community. The code of conduct policy in this case, protects the community from corruption and delivery of poor services. Though not so much oriented to the policy, there is an incident of corruption that was reported whereby the leaders used the community’s funds to serve their own interests. This was a violation of the expected code of conduct resulting to poor reputation, devaluation of the organizations activities as well as loss of trust by the community members.
Generally, JCAHO is of great importance not only within the care organizations but to other organizations as fairness and ethical approach to issues is of great importance and benefits altogether. It actually, promotes safety and quality delivery of services to the community as whole.