The Hernando Endoscopy and Surgery Center
is accredited by JCAHO.

(Click on the Certificate above to see actual size)

What does that mean to you? What is accreditation?

Accreditation means that this outpatient facility has volunteered to undergo a challenging, comprehensive evaluation. It has made a significant extra effort to review and improve the key factors that can affect the quality and safety of your care.

Accreditation by JCAHO is considered the Gold Standard in health care. Hospitals have been evaluated by JCAHO for more than 50 years. This facility is accredited just as the hospitals in your community are accredited.

Doctors and nurses from JCAHO personally visited this facility to conduct a review, to look at how well the staff

• provides a safe environment for your care
• educates you about the risks and options for diagnosis and treatment
• protects your rights as a patient, including your right to confidentiality
• evaluates your condition, before, during and after diagnosis and treatment
• protects you against infection
• plans for emergency situations.

The fact that this facility has gone through this evaluation shows an extraordinary commitment to provide safe, high quality care and a willingness to be measured against the highest standards of performance.

How does an organization become JCAHO accredited?
JCAHO accreditation is voluntary. To prepare for its review, a facility like this one made a commitment to improvement, and put teams together to look carefully at what it could do better to ensure safety and quality of care. Next, JCAHO surveyors were invited to the facility for an intense on-site review. Then this facility received a report identifying its strengths, and outlining what it could improve.

Only a small percentage of outpatient settings have gone through this kind of evaluation. Congratulations on choosing an accredited facility.

Whenever and wherever you receive health care, look for the JCAHO gold seal of approval.

What is JCAHO?
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising the level of safety and quality of care in all health care settings. Since 1951, JCAHO accreditation has been recognized within health care as a symbol of quality.

JCAHO's governing board includes doctors, nurses, medical directors and consumers. JCAHO sets the standards that measure health care quality in America and around the world. On a continuing basis, groups of doctors, nurses, and representatives of national health care organizations meet to review the standards for care, and make recommendations for additions and improvements to the requirements.

JCAHO's mission
To continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care.

A patient who has concerns about the care received or  safety in the organization, the patient is encouraged to contact the organizations management, if the concerns cannot be resolved through the organization, the patient is encouraged to contact the Joint Commission's Office of Quality Management to report any concerns or register complaints about the facility, by calling 1-800-994-6610 or emailing complaint@jcaho.org

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