By JUDY RATTNER
Mercy has continuously held full accreditation since such recognition started over 40 years ago.
"We are pleased that the Joint Commission has acknowledged our commitment to meeting their state-of-the-art national standards for healthcare quality and safety," said Dr. Alan D. Guerci, Mercy's president and CEO, in a written statement. "We are dedicated to providing the highest level of care and to complying with the Joint Commission's standards on a continuous basis."
Mercy's continuing accreditation by the Joint Commission, which a spokesman for the hospital, Mel Granick, said it expects in the next six-to-eight weeks, follows on-site audits conducted on Dec. 11-14 last year and this month, on April 11, that assessed the actual delivery of patient-care services at the hospital. They are part of a continuous process that is designed to provide the facility with insights for maintaining the highest standards in daily operations and systems. A spokesman for the Illinois-based Joint Commission, Ken Powers, said he couldn't confirm anything about the results of the Mercy survey because they were not official yet. He said Mercy might receive the final report in May.
"We are committed to doing our very best every day to provide quality patient care at Mercy, and this recognition by the Joint Commission is another important milestone for us," said Nancy Simmons, Mercy's executive vice president.
Granick said aspects of patient care at Mercy have also been under scrutiny by the New York State Department of Health as a result of numerous complaints, starting in 2005, that were made by Dr. Anthony Colantonio, a Garden City surgeon who worked at the hospital. Colantonio participated in a 2/12 mile march Saturday, from the Rockville Centre train station to the hospital with a group called Leap for Patient Safety, to raise awareness about medical errors and promote patient safety. Colantonio is currently on a leave of absence from Mercy, pending a disciplinary hearing by the hospital in May that could result in the revocation of his medical privileges there.
According to Granick, Mercy has had to change its document procedures relative to communications between physicians assistants and supervising physicians. He said Mercy has submitted a plan of correction that has been accepted by the Department of Health.
"Other than that," said Granick, there have been "no findings of any action or inaction at Mercy by physician's assistants that have resulted in a death or permanent harm to any patient."
Referring to the hospital's continued accreditation, Colantonio said, "I think it's great. If Mercy corrected the serious, significant and numerous patient and physician safety concerns, if those were all corrected, then that's great."
Comments about this story? RVCeditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 208.
