Half of the standards on The Joint Commission's 2016 list of the 10 toughest standards for accredited office-based surgery practices dropped off the 2017 list.
The Joint Commission identified the most common challenges for practices by analyzing standards compliance data, and determined the hardest standards in 2017 based on an average of 104 surveys.
Here are the five standards from the 2016 list that didn't make this year's top 10.
1. IC.01.03.01: The practice identifies risks for acquiring and transmitting infections.
2. NPSG.07.01.01: Comply with either the current CDC hand hygiene guidelines or the current WHO hand hygiene guidelines.
3. IC.01.05.01: The practice plans for preventing and controlling infections.
4. IC.02.04.01: The practice offers vaccination against influenza to licensed independent practitioners and staff.
5. WT.03.01.01: Staff and licensed independent practitioners performing waived tests are competent.