Question: How do I determine my firm group?

We currently have over 4000 travelers. To determine firm size, do we combine our travel and per diem assignments so we would choose >/= 350 clinical placements?

For the completeness of personnel file section for per diem, If we had 50 per diem assignments in a reporting month, are we still auditing for 20 based on our firm size of >/= 350 placements or would be just audit for 10 based on the monthly sample size number of clinical placements of 50?

Thank you

Answer:

1. To determine your firm size group, choose the group that corresponds with the "Total Number of Clinical Placements" reported to The Joint Commission on your last application for HCSS Certification. The total number on the application is the sum of all nursing, allied health professionals, and LIPs (travel and per diem) identified for each site/branch office listed in the application.

If the "Total Number of Clinical Placements" on the application was 4000, then you will report in Firm Group 4 and select the "d" strata sub-measures, i.e., HCSS-4d, HCSS-5d, HCSS-6d, HCSS-7d.

2. As currently specified, you will still select 20 files for review based on your Firm Group being >/= 350 clinical placements. Denominator values reported for per diem measures will be much smaller than the denominator values reported for the travel staff measures.

4000 travel staff and 50 per diem staff is a wide spread. As firms submit data for the revised measures, we may revisit the sampling methodology after some future analysis.

Thank you for your inquiry.