Joint Commission Seeks Comments on SBIRT Proposals

The Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is requesting public comment on proposed new hospital performance measures requiring screening, brief intervention, referral or treatment (SBIRT) for patients who show excessive alcohol use, use of illicit drugs, misuse of prescription drugs, or tobacco use.

If adopted, the SBIRT measures will address some of the nation’s greatest unmet healthcare needs in hospitals throughout the U.S. At present one in four U.S. hospital admissions is related to alcohol, tobacco or other drug use, and more than two million deaths in the United States each year, approximately one in four, is attributable to the use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. Screening admitted patients for tobacco, alcohol and substance use, and initiating treatment in the hospital for these conditions makes good clinical sense.

Specifically, the proposed Joint Commission measures would require that:

1. All admitted patients are screened for excessive alcohol use, use of illicit drugs, misuse of prescription drugs, or tobacco use.
2. All patients with a positive screen receive a brief intervention.
3. All patients with a positive screen who are found to have alcohol or drug dependence or tobacco dependence will have treatment initiated in the hospital or be referred to treatment at discharge.
4. All patients be contacted within two weeks post hospital discharge and offered additional help as needed.

The Joint Commission accredits nearly 16,000 health care organizations in the U.S., covering approximately 95% of all hospital beds in the country. Because substance use problems cause or complicate over 50 different medical conditions involving every organ system, the importance of enactment of these new measures cannot be overstated.

To submit comments, visit: www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1TBtOYyNkkAJYVQIb6jG8g_3d_3d. The public comment period will run from September 1 to September 30.