JCAHO and Screeing Issues

Attached an important e-mail and message from our ASAM Regional Director.
We must make every effort to submit our comments.
Yours
Bernd


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Richard Soper wrote:
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> Richard Soper wrote:
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> Chapter Presidents and colleagues;
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> Last year, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAHO) called for comments on whether it should create standards for tobacco, alcohol and drug screening and referral for all hospitals. Many of us then wrote to the Joint Commission with our comments. Our efforts were successful. JCAHO has now published a set of proposed standardsfor tobacco, alcohol and drug screening, brief intervention, referral and treatment.
> In my view, publication and adoption of these standards is a fundamentally important recognition that alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems should be identified and treated in all hospital patients as a routine part of care. If adopted, the tobacco, alcohol and drug reporting standards would be among those that hospitals can select for monitoring their own quality and performance.
> Hospital administrators, boards and staff will know what they should be doing about tobacco, alcohol and drugs to help their patients get better.
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> I am urging all of you to take personal action to achieve the final step in this long journey:
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> Getting the draft standards adopted.
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> Please do two important things now:
> 1. Submit Your Comments Online.The Commission has invited public comment until September 30, so you really need to do this NOW.
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> You will find an online survey formthat asks whether you believe the proposed standards will improve patient care, are clear enough to be implemented, and meet other JCAHO goals for its hospital standards. Your answers will have an impact on whether the standards are adopted. There is a link to full text of the standards on the first page of the survey, and you can also read Join Together's recent feature story summarizing the proposal.
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> 1. Send this Message To other ASAM members, a Colleague, friend. We need as many voices from the field as possible supporting SBI as the routine standard of care. Tell your colleagues about this major opportunity to affect the health care of millions of Americans.
> 2. WE can continue to make a difference and have impact of formation of policy with our combined efforts to guide this process.
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> Onward,
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> Rich Soper, JD, MD, FASAM