JOINT COMMISSION POLICY STATEMENT

Professional Staffing is committed to providing a higher standard of service and to the delivery of safe, quality patient care.  Professional Staffing complies with the Joint Commission’s Standards for Healthcare Staffing Services.  As our customer, you can have confidence that the processes within Professional Staffing support that the supplemental staff working in your organization have met the requirements established by the Joint Commission.  To assure compliance with the Joint Commission Standards for Healthcare Staffing Services, Professional Staffing provides the customer a written description of the following service features.

1. Subcontractors

Professional Staffing will not engage subcontractors to provide Assigned Employees unless agreed to in advance by the customer.

2. Floating

Assigned Employees may only be placed in assignments that match the job description for which Professional Staffing assigns them; if an Assigned Employee is asked to float to another department with the customer, the department must be a like department or unit and the float employee must have demonstrated previous competency and have the appropriate certifications, credentials for that department/unit. Assigned Employees should only be floated to areas of comparable clinical diagnoses and acuities.

It is the responsibility of Professional Staffing to conduct and finalize the pre employment assessment of the Assigned Employee’s competence based on the techniques, procedures, technology and skills needed to provide care, treatment and services to the populations served by the customer upon completion of Professional Staffing’ orientation.
It shall be the responsibility of the customer to cooperate in a review or evaluation of each Assigned Employee, relative to the employee’s ability to perform specific job functions upon completion of employee’s assignment or shift. Professional Staffing relies on the customer’s feedback in order to accurately assess and re-assess the competence of the Assigned Employee on an ongoing basis based on the customer’s report of clinical performance.

4. Orientation of Employees

Professional Staffing will provide all new employees with an orientation to the company’s policies and procedures.  It shall be the responsibility of customer to orient assigned employees to the facility and its rules and regulations and to acquaint them with the facility policies and procedures, including dress code, physical layout and equipment and to validate competency and ability of Assigned Employee to properly use equipment.

5. Employees and Independent Contractors

As the provider of staffing services, Professional Staffing will be the employer of Assigned Employees and shall not by reason of their temporary assignment with the customer through Professional Staffing become employees of the customer. At its sole discretion Professional Staffing reserves the right to utilize Independent Contractors in addition to its employees, to assist in the provision of all agreed upon Healthcare Supplemental Staffing services.

6. Incident, Error, Tracking System

Upon notification of Incidents and or Errors, Professional Staffing shall document and track all unexpected incidents, including errors, sentinel events and other events, such as injuries and safety hazards related to the care and services provided, utilizing its data gathering tools. Information gathered tracked and analyzed is to shared and reported appropriately to customers, regulatory bodies and the Joint Commission as required.

7. Communicating Occupational Safety Hazards/Events

It shall be the responsibility of the customer to notify Professional Staffing within 24 hours of the event; any competency issues, incidents, and/or complaints related to the Assigned Employee and/or Professional Staffing. Customer agrees to initiate communication with Professional Staffing whenever an incident/injury report related to the Assigned Employee is completed

8. Requirements for Staff Specified

The requirements of staff sent to the customer by Professional Staffing are to be determined by the customer as part of the written agreement between the two parties. It is Professional Staffing’ obligation to comply with the requirements of the customer by supplying staff that have the documented competencies, credentials, health screening and experience to satisfy the requirements specified by the customer in order to deliver safe care to the population being served.

9. Staff Matching Requirements

Professional Staffing shall verify the Assigned Employee’s licensure, certification, education and work experience to assure they are competent and possess the skills and experience that match requirements for the assignment. Matching the Assigned Employee’s licensure, certification, education and work experience to assure they are competent and possess the skills and experience matching the specified requirements of the assignment may include the use of new grad practitioners for Allied personnel and non-licensed nursing personnel such as sitters, caregivers and nursing assistants, it may also include licensed nursing personnel upon the request or approval of the customer.

In the event of an emergency, natural disaster or other uncontrollable event, Professional Staffing will continue to provide service to you through our corporate network from a location where phones and computers are functional.  Professional Staffing will do everything possible to support you in meeting your needs during crisis situation(s).  A copy of our Emergency Management Plan is available upon request.

Our goal is to always provide you with a consistent level of service.  If for any reason you are dissatisfied with our service or the service provided by one of our healthcare professionals, we encourage you to contact the local manager to discuss the issue.  Professional Staffing has processes in place to resolve customer complaints in an effective and efficient manner.  If the resolution does not meet your expectation, we encourage you to call the Professional Staffing corporate office at 818.366.1300.  A corporate representative will work with you to resolve your concern.  Any individual or organization that has a concern about the quality and safety of patient care delivered by Professional Staffing healthcare professionals, which has not been addressed by Professional Staffing management, is encouraged to contact the Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org or by calling the Office of Quality Monitoring at 630.792.5636.  Professional Staffing demonstrates this commitment by taking no retaliatory or disciplinary action against employees when they do report safety or quality of care concerns to the Joint Commission.