Spotlight on the Standards

Revision Already? Adult Standards Up for Fine-Tuning in ’06

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care’s mission is to improve the quality of health care provided in correctional facilities. In keeping with this mission, a central activity is the establishment of solid, professional, outcomes-based standards to guide the correctional health care field.

But while the Standards for Health Services are founded on core principles, they are not static. Subject to quality improvement review, the standards evolve to keep pace with contemporary health care, to mirror national clinical guidelines, including those for the mental health and addiction fields, and to align correctional health care with the continuum of public health care.

Thus, revision of standards occurs not on a fixed schedule but rather when it becomes apparent that it’s necessary. With every new edition, our field progresses further.

However, a top-to-bottom revision is not always necessary. For the next editions of the prison and jail Standards, scheduled for publication in 2007, the extent of changes may be better characterized as “updates.”

Continual Change
The 2003 Standards for Health Services in adult facilities introduced major improvements: several new standards, the combining of some standards and the splitting of others, a new format that includes statements of expected outcomes, compliance indicators and more.

Accredited prisons and jails have now transitioned to compliance with these editions, which took full effect in December 2003. Still, questions may arise that, along with continual progress in the various health care specialties, modifications to national guidelines and community practice, and ever-changing correctional issues, signal a need for updates of specific standards.

It is always a challenge to balance the desire for continuity in accreditation requirements with the need to incorporate changes, and this is especially true after implementation of the 2003 editions.

Each stakeholder brings a unique perspective to this discussion. Facility staff who must implement or comply with the standards on a daily basis ask for minimal change so that future surveys can take place under the same set of standards. NCCHC surveyors want clarity in interpretation. Accreditation committee members and staff want to improve wording of standards that cause difficulty for facilities. Users who base policies and practices on the standards but are not involved in accreditation do not want to start over.

Share Your Thoughts
Given these various, and sometimes conflicting, perspectives, NCCHC invites feedback as we enter the next cycle of revision. If you have any comments or suggestions about the Standards, please send them to us and we will consider them as part of the review process.

(This article first appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of CorrectCare.)

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