Sonoma Valley Hospital earns the Joint Commission’s seal of approval

The Sonoma Valley Hospital, by demonstrating compliance with the Joint Commission‘s national standards for health care quality and safety, has earned the Joint Commission’s accreditation and Gold Seal of Approval, hospital representatives announced Monday.
“We sought accreditation for our organization because we want to demonstrate our commitment to patients’ safety and quality care,” said Chief Executive Officer Carl Gerlach. “We view obtaining Joint Commission accreditation as another step toward achieving excellence.”
“The community should be proud that Sonoma Valley Hospital is focusing on the most challenging goal – to continuously raise quality and safety to higher levels,” said Darlene Christiansen, executive director of the Joint Commission’s hospital accreditation program. “The national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in an organization’s performance and the outcomes of care.”
Founded in 1951, the Joint Commission is dedicated to improving the safety and quality of public health care through accreditation and services supporting performance improvement in health care organizations. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 8,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,800 other health care organizations providing long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, and laboratory and ambulatory services.
The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities. In addition, the Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.
At a hospital board meeting in June, right after The Joint Commission inspection, board chair Dick Kirk formally acknowledged the hospital staff for a job “incredibly well done.”  Even though at that time he did not know the results, he was plainly satisfied that the hospital had risen to the challenge of the process and performed admirably. “It’s fair to say we did very, very well on that,” he said. “Much better than the hospitals in surrounding areas.”
Sitting in the front row at that meeting were Robbie Cohen, emergency ward director and Patricia Brooks, program director of the Sonoma Valley Hospital Integrative Medicine Referral Program. After Kirk and Gerlach recognized them for their contribution, Boardmember Arnold Riebli looked down from the dias and said, “Patty and Robbie, you folks did an incredible job.”