Today, most behavioral healthcare facilities are accredited with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). JCAHO is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare. According to the Joint Commission, “Achieving Joint Commission accreditation demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement inpatient care. Joint Commission accreditation tells your patients you’re committed to providing safe, high-quality care – time and time again.”

However, Joint Commission accreditation is a multiple-step process that can take time. Once accreditation is received, a behavioral healthcare facility must continuously keep up with patient care standards to maintain its accreditation. Luckily, with Lightning Step Technologies’ All-In-One system, maintaining accreditation is as easy as ever.

Achieving Accreditation With JCAHO

A behavioral healthcare facility achieves accreditation with the Joint Commission upon completing an on-site survey conducted by a specially trained Joint Commission surveyor or team of surveyors. A surveyor will assess a facility’s ability to comply with Joint Commission standards.

During the accreditation survey, surveyors will select patients randomly and use their medical records as a roadmap to evaluate a facility’s compliance with standards. As surveyors examine a patient’s experience in a behavioral healthcare facility, they also talk to doctors, nurses, and other staff who interacted with the patient. Surveyors also observe doctors and nurses providing care and often speak to the patients themselves.

Accreditation with the Joint Commission for most healthcare organizations is a three-year award. After three years, a facility must go through an audit, where they are re-evaluated and awarded accreditation once again.

Why Is It Important for Behavioral Healthcare Facilities to Be Accredited?

While it is not a requirement to be accredited with the Joint Commission, there are many benefits to having JCAHO accreditation. One of the most crucial benefits of accreditation is that many patients and referral sources look for JCAHO accreditation facilities when searching for treatment facilities. For many patients, Joint Commission accreditation will factor into their decision of where to receive treatment.

JCAHO accreditation also benefits behavioral healthcare staff. When an outside party can assure facilities they are doing their best in providing patient care, staff can get a boost of confidence and reassurance. Having a team of professionals who feel confident in what they do can take patient care even further.

Lastly, JCAHO accreditation can help behavioral healthcare facilities on a financial level. Many insurance companies will look for accreditation when contracting with a facility, and for some, it may be required.

According to a Joint Commission case study on accredited behavioral healthcare facilities, “The Joint Commission pushes you to provide excellent customer care and service, and really, isn’t that what we’re all aiming for?”

Where Lightning Step Technologies Comes In

When a behavioral healthcare facility wishes to get accredited or needs to be audited by the Joint Commission, Lightning Step Technologies can help make this process as seamless as possible. Our All-In-One CRM (Customer Relation Management), EMR (Electronic Medical Record), and RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) system has several benefits that can help surveyors with JCAHO go through medical records and patient experiences to best complete their surveys.

Lightning Step Technologies can help behavioral healthcare facilities with Joint Commission accreditation and audits in the following ways:

#1. Reduction in Errors

With Lightning Step Technologies’ All-In-One system, staff members across a behavioral healthcare facility can input patient information with a reduction in errors. Instead of information needing to be entered into the system multiple times, much of the patient information stored only needs one entry point. At this point, the software can flag any errors or missed information. When data only has to be entered once, it eliminates the chance of errors accidentally occurring with future staff.

#2. Easy-to-Use Templates

Lightning Step’s All-In-One system provides behavioral healthcare facilities with templates where they can design their medical charts and forms that will most benefit their practices and procedures. This can ensure that the facility gets the most out of its charts without staff skipping over unnecessary questions or notes. Templates streamline the admission and check-in process, promote patient satisfaction, and further reduce errors in the data entry process.

#3. Data Storage and Reports

Lightning Step Technologies provides clients with the option to run reports and access data all in one place with an All-In-One system. Instead of keeping a record of how many patients checked in during a specific month or the ratio between male and female patients, our All-In-One system holds this data until the reports are ready to review. Data storage and reports create an easy way to examine the operations of the behavioral healthcare facility and compare trends.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) provides accreditation to behavioral healthcare facilities nationwide. Joint Commission accreditation proves to patients and other facilities that your facility is devoted to providing safe and high-quality patient care. Getting accredited or audited with JCAHO requires access to patient data. When your facility chooses Lightning Step Technologies for record-keeping needs, we make that process as seamless as possible. Our All-In-One CRM, EMR, and RCM system can provide your behavioral healthcare facility with easy-to-use templates, reduce data entry errors, and provide data storage and reports. Lightning Step removes the pain points of using multiple platforms by putting all the pieces under one efficient software. With the benefits of Lightning Step’s software, your facility can be assured that JCAHO will have access to everything they need so you can get or maintain your accreditation. Schedule a demo for more information on how Lightning Step Technologies can benefit your facility.