Chesapeake Supportive Care earns Gold Seal of Approval®

Chesapeake Supportive Care has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Community-Based Palliative Care Accreditation by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The Gold Seal is a symbol of quality that reflects a health care organization’s commitment to providing safe and quality patient care.

Chesapeake Supportive Care, a program of Hospice of the Chesapeake, recently underwent a rigorous, unannounced onsite review on March 11. During the visit, a team of Joint Commission reviewers evaluated compliance with community-based palliative care standards spanning several areas including pain screening and assessment, pain improvement, dyspnea screening and improvement, discussion of advance care planning and patient and family satisfaction with care, among others.

The Joint Commission’s standards are developed in consultation with national health care experts and providers, measurement experts and patients. They are informed by scientific literature and expert consensus to help health care organizations measure, assess, and improve performance. The surveyors also conducted onsite observations and interviews.

“As a private accreditor, The Joint Commission surveys health care organizations to protect the public by identifying deficiencies in care and working with those organizations to correct them as quickly and sustainably as possible,” said Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, chief operating officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations, and chief nursing executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend Chesapeake Supportive Care and Hospice of the Chesapeake for its continuous quality improvement efforts in patient safety and quality of care.”

Chesapeake Supportive Care has been providing palliative/supportive care since 2012 to those living with complex illnesses in our region. “We are incredibly proud and honored by this certification and humbled to be the first and only program in the Delaware/Maryland/Virginia region to achieve this distinction as well as one of only 54 in the nation to receive this certification,” said Chief Medical Officer Eric Bush, MD, RPh, MBA. “While this is a great honor for our incredibly dedicated team, the true impact is the advancement of awareness, understanding and utilization of supportive care for those who need us.” said Bush.

Bush joined the nonprofit in September 2016 and helped to bring new energy to growing the palliative care specialty, building a strong interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurse practitioners and other clinical professionals. In 2018, he led the organization to open the area’s first outpatient palliative care center with the support of John and Terri Hussman, now known as the Hussman Supportive Care Center.

For more information, please visit The Joint Commission website.

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Chesapeake Supportive Care is a group of physicians and nurse practitioners who specialize in the care of people with advanced illness and are experts in managing pain, difficult symptoms and advanced care planning. For more information, visit www.chesapeakesupportivecare.org.