HEALTH CARE Sharon Regional earns accreditation from JCAHO

SHARON, Pa. -- Sharon Regional Health System has earned continued accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization.
It did this by demonstrating compliance with the commission's national standards for health care quality and safety, hospital officials said.
A team of surveyors from the commission spent a week at Sharon Regional early this month conducting a review of all patient care departments and services except skilled care, which is reviewed independently by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
& quot;Above all, the national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in an organization's performance and the outcomes of care, & quot; says Kurt Patton, executive director of the commission's hospital accreditation program.
Founded in 1951, the commission seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation. An independent, nonprofit organization, the commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.