Becker's Hospital Review

67 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY What hospitals should know before their next Joint Commission survey By Mackenzie Bean T he Joint Commission on June 17 outlined some of the hospital requirements it will assess during normal survey processes, which have resumed. The organization said its primary focus will not be on scoring all hospital standards that are out of compliance during the pandemic. However, there are several require- ments related to the maintenance of equipment and util- ities that could pose safety concerns if left unchecked for a full accreditation cycle, The Joint Commission said. The organization will focus on hospitals' current com- pliance with these requirements during surveys, rather than if they maintained them throughout the pandemic's peak. If hospitals are found to be out of compliance, The Joint Commission will issue a requirement for improvement. If the hospital was previously deemed to meet all CMS requirements, The Joint Commission will also score the facility on the CMS Conditions of Participation by assign- ing one of two levels: • Standard level: The issue is out of the organiza- tion's control and the hospital provided evidence of an attempt to resolve it. • Condition level: The issue is not out of the orga- nization's control and no attempt was made to re- solve the issue. n Leaving WHO could leave US without vital flu vaccine information By Anuja Vaidya T he White House decision to with- draw from the World Health Orga- nization may leave the U.S. with- out crucial information used to determine influenza vaccines for future flu seasons, according to STAT. Twice a year, the WHO's flu strain selection group meets to discuss which variant of the flu virus should be used in vaccines in the up- coming flu season. ough the process is not flawless because the dominant flu strain in a particular season is very hard to predict, it is a key process in making sure the flu vaccine is updated with the best information available at that moment. e group includes experts from 10 institu- tions from around the world, and three of the seats are reserved for U.S. institutions. But President Donald Trump's announcement at the end of May that the U.S. will end its re- lationship with the WHO due to its response to the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the participation of U.S. experts in the flu strain selection process into question. It is not clear whether U.S. experts would try to participate in the process and whether they could. Nancy Cox, a retired CDC official who pre- viously led the agency's influenza division for 22 years, told STAT that without that vital information from other countries about flu virus variants, the U.S. will be "flying blind." One reason is that new flu strains usually emerge in Asia, not in the Americas, she said. In addition, experts in the group share infor- mation on other animal flu viruses that could result in potential future pandemics, such as avian and swine flu. n US aims to 'take flu off the table' in preparation for second wave of coronavirus By Maia Anderson D rugmakers are making millions of extra flu shots this year in preparation for a possible second wave of COVID-19 during the annual flu season, and in a rare move, the CDC has bought 7 million doses directly from them, The Washington Post reported. The CDC usually buys about 500,000 doses of the flu shot to distribute to states, but has spent $100 million to buy 7 million doses and has given $140 million to immunization programs across the U.S. to boost adult flu vaccination. "This is a big move," CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, said. Drugmakers are planning to boost production by about 10 percent to make 189 million doses this year, up from 170 million last year. Public health experts are expecting an "un- precedented" number of people to get a flu shot this year, according to the Post. Experts have said lowering the number of people who catch the flu could free up critical hospital space to handle a potential second wave of COVID-19. Health officials are especially concerned about people at higher risk for both COVID-19 and the flu, the Post reported, such as residents and employees at long-term care facilities, people with co- morbitities and Black and Latinx people. "We want to take flu off the table, in every way possible, make flu a nonfactor," LJ Tan, PhD, chief strategy officer of the Immunization Action Coalition, told the Post. n

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