I had our JCAHO Information Management Interview and library visit
yesterday and will summarize:
The Information Management interview was run by a JCAHO "intern" who
is learning to  be a surveyor.  The major questions asked (mostly
of the IS staff) were:
1.How have you identified the information needs of your hospital?
  There were some problems with this because the plan our CIO
wrote was not satisfactory to the surveyor.  This actually took up
most of the 45 minutes because he wasn't real happy with the
answers he was getting.
2. Is there a PLAN to collect data and use effectively (ie analyze)
 
3. Can you show me that all departments have had the opportunity to
provide input to the information system and tell you their needs
(IS did a survey recently )
4. Are you able to get particular data on patients and quickly analyze
it when working on various provjects such as managed care contracts?
@How are you educating staff to use and analyze information?       ion!
5. Who makes decisions about changes in the IS and can you show me proff
proof of these decisions?
ALthough I could have answered these questions as they related to the
library, he obviously directed them to the CIO and wanted his answeres.
This was ok with me because in fact, it was not a "comfy" interview.
I believe the IS staff was prepared and did meet standards but this
surveyor was rather vague in his questions.
 
The same surveyor next came to the library. He did stay the entire half hour and
it was a very pleasant meeting.  He asked some specific questions about collection
size, weeding, etc. but most of it was very open ended.  He asked what could
I tell him about the "good" things the department does. I addressed our
needs assessment plan ( he did not specifically ask about it), I talked about
the various users, including patients and families ( he seemed thrilled), he
asked about the staff size and if it was satisfactgory.  My boss and I told
him that the library is being given priority for a relocation plan (we
are now in a separate building). He told a few stories but I gently got
the subject back to our library since I wanted to be able to get all my
points across.  He menteiond in our discussion how JCAHO does not even
require there to be a library but he agreed with my statement that it would
be hard to meet standards if there was not one - he likened it to jcaho's
not requiring computers  but how could you comply with all of IM wihtout
them. The libary visit was more of a conversation as opposed to a
"grilling".
 
We next went on to the Patient Education meeting and the administrator
surveyor came to that as well.  My surveyor started the meeting out
stating that he had just been to the library and could tell that the
library had a good "patient education program" and what was the rest
of the hopsital doing for patient ed?  After I left that conference, I
wished him luck on the rest of his internship and he was again very
complimentary about out services.
 
So this waws a good experience for me. I was glad of a couple of things -
He stayed the whole half hour even though they were behind schedule,
he really listened to all I had to say, even though he did not specifically
ask for many details. We actually sat down to talk as opposed to previous
visits were they just "walk through" and chat a few minutes.
 
If anyone has any questions they wish to ask, please contact me.
Jo_Ann Babish
Moses Taylor Hopsital
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