Accredited hospitals have to meet more than 250 standards with 2,300 elements

of performance. Some of these include patient safety, high quality of care,

environment of care, risk management, communication, organizational structure,

information management, medical staff management and medication management.

Hospitals must perform year-round to these standards because JCAHO reviews

its accredited hospitals every three years.

"I have one word for you about Children's JCAHO score: WOW!," said

Children's CEO Dr. Jim Tally. "The surveyors were extremely complimentary

of our organization. In JCAHO's new survey process they no longer give a

numerical score. However they indicated that if they were still scoring,

we would represent a score of 98 or their highest level of commendation."

"Children's provides high quality patient care," said Charlene

Roberts, Director of System Accreditation at Children's. "By inviting

an outside entity such as JCAHO to come to our organization and review our

processes and systems, it validates that we do indeed provide that caliber

of care. We view obtaining Joint Commission accreditation as another step

toward achieving excellence."

Added Kurt Patton, executive director, Hospital Accreditation Program, JCAHO, "Above

all, the national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic

and organization - wide improvement in an organization's performance and

the outcomes of care, The community should be proud that Children's Healthcare

of Atlanta continues to focus on the most challenging goal - to continuously

raise quality and safety to higher levels."