Patient Care So Good, It Makes Joint Commission Smile

Brandywine Counseling has passed our Joint Commission survey with glowing reviews. They visited all our treatment programs during the last two weeks and found outstanding patient care. Our surveyor Elaine remarked that she smiled through the whole process, and called BCI a well-oiled machine. Patients and families, you can be confident you'll get some of the best treatment in the nation here. Great job, staff!

Welcome, Joint Commission Surveyors

A little bit like a student studying for their final exams, mixed with a homeowner tidying up the place for a very important guest. Tense and meticulous, yet confident. That’s the mood of the staff here at BCI as we prepare for a survey by Joint Commission.

All the light bulbs have been checked, the floors have been given an extra mopping, and there’s a fresh coat of sky blue paint on the wall at Lancaster. We're pulling together important documents, and making sure we know our policies inside and out. For me, it means checking the latest performance data, and taking a close look at why wait time is down, and successful discharges are up. Sure, we do this stuff throughout the year, we just give it extra attention at a time like this.

The Joint Commission last visited us in 2007, and they gave us high marks. Those of you who chose BCI for treatment have come to expect high quality services, and we work to provide you the best possible care. You trust us with your lives every day, not just when someone is watching. So even as we check and double check that all our i’s are dotted and our t’s crossed, we can be confident that excellent care will show through, just as you can be confident in your treatment.

Deemed Status Awarded to Two BCI Sites

Congratulations to the BCI Lancaster Center and Alpha Center for receiving Deemed Status from the State of Delaware! This means State auditors found the quality of care we provide is sufficiently high to merit a two-year license rather than the usual one year. It is the first time we applied for and received Deemed Status. This is a credit to the staff at these two locations and to our internal auditors (who have been said to be even more strict than the State). Well done!

BCI Provides Quality Care, Says Joint Commission

Brandywine Counseling received a surprise inspection from the Joint Commission during the last week and a half. This is a survey of the quality and safety of our treatment programs, using the same guidelines as major hospitals. They’re interested in how well we actually deliver critical health care services.

It used to be that the Joint Commission would give us advance notice of when the surveyors were coming. Recently, they introduced unannounced visits, so that health care organizations are truly accountable on a daily basis. This was the first of Brandywine’s unannounced visits.

How do we prepare for this? Our staff is committed to quality on a daily basis, from the internal audits we do as a self-check, to the relationships we build with each client in order to meet their individual needs. Still, we wonder how our efforts will be judged at survey time.

As it turns out, we had no reason to worry. The surveyors who visited the BCI Alpha, Newark and Lancaster sites had high praise for us. The list of positive comments was too long to mention here – the completeness of our patient records, our use of data to measure outcomes, our clients’ comments about us, and our innovative ideas for the future, just to name a few.

It’s gratifying to know that your organization is doing a good job. Congratulations to all the staff whose day-to-day work makes this possible.