The American Chiropractic Association
REPORTS HERE that "the Joint Commission, the largest credentialing body for hospitals and
health care organizations in North America,
has recently changed its
stance on the recognition of chiropractors. This organization now
recognizes chiropractors as physicians. This is a major policy change
from decades ago, when the commission published an article entitled
The Right and Duty of Hospitals to Exclude Doctors of Chiropractic.”
The ACA reports that "The Joint Commission (JC) was one of the organizations named in the
Wilk
antitrust lawsuit for allegedly restricting the profession of
chiropractic. It has grown in maturity since those days and is now a
major force for good in the provision of health care in the United
States and in Department of Defense (DOD) medical facilities worldwide.
JC is no longer simply a private policeman for the health care industry;
it now considers itself a partner in health care. This is evident in
its new motto:
Helping Health Care Organizations Help Patients."
"The current list of JC-recognized physicians includes medical doctors,
dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and chiropractors. Chiropractors and
optometrists are recent additions."
"The Joint Commission, formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO, pronounced
jay-co),
is a non-profit private organization that accredits health care
organizations. JC credentials 17,000 different health care entities. It
provides a fee-based credentialing process, in which hospitals
participate. Even though submitting an application to this private
organization for credentialing is technically voluntary, from a
practical perspective, failure to have JC accreditation would very
likely lead to the closure of a hospital. Joint Commission credentialing
is the standard that all successful hospitals, including government
facilities, attain."
"JC has changed in recent years from being an inspection and
credentialing institution to being a proactive partner in improving
health care. The new JC identifies particular patient safety needs and
educates participating organizations about how to optimize treatment and
to prevent sentinel events, prescription errors, wrong-side surgeries,
nosocomial infections and a variety of patient safety concerns. It now
provides leadership, guidance and education to the hospitals it
credentials."
"Every hospital-based chiropractor can tell you about the impact that JC
has on clinic standards, record keeping and policy. Hospital-based
chiropractic clinics write their policy with JC in mind. Fortunately, JC
values interdisciplinary collaboration greatly and likes to see
evidence of patient-focused teamwork."
"Even though JC clearly stated this change will in no way diminish the
authority of medical doctors,
there has still been an outcry from
certain medical organizations that do not want chiropractors
(and optometrists) added to the list of physicians. These organizations
are lobbying JC in an attempt to have DCs and optometrists removed from
physician status."
"The reason that we should be concerned about JC’s physician designation
is the wide-sweeping impact JC has on health care in North America. JC
influences Medicare, Medicaid, the DOD, the Veterans Administration, the
Public Health Service and virtually every hospital in the United
States. This private organization will have a monumental impact on how
all of the other players in health care perceive and treat chiropractors
in the future. Being designated as a physician by a prestigious
organization lends far more credibility to chiropractic than being
categorized as technicians."
