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What can you, the hospital librarian, do to get ready for the Resource Center Interview? Your first step is to review library policies and make sure that they address the issues identified in the standards. Areas to be studied are:
Your policies should be based on the unique needs and circumstances of your organization and your library and information service.
- Access To The Library
- Who can use it and how do they access the services?
- Collection Development
- How do you find out from the customer what they need in the collection?
- Access to Information For Patients And Their Families
- What mechanisms are in place to get current information to the patient and their families?
- Needs Assessment
- How do you find out what your customers want or need from the library?
- Linkages
- What systems are used to share resources outside your collection?
- Quality Improvement
- What mechanisms are in place to continuously evaluate and improve services?
After reviewing and revising your policies (if necessary), the next step is to gather the evidence of compliance with the standards. The surveyor may ask to see the library's policy manual, minutes from Library Committee meetings, written needs assessment, and quality improvement plans and any other documentation. This material should be organized and readily available during the interview to support your discussion.
What happens during the interview? In most cases the Resource Center is scheduled for a 30 minute interview with the administrator - surveyor. You should approach the interview as a learning experience for everyone involved. It's an opportunity for JCAHO to address the important issues related to access to knowledge-based information services, but it is also your chance to educate the surveyor about libraries and information services. You need to stay focused on the important issues and tactfully guide the discussion back into focus if it begins to digress into too many "war stories."
What are they going to ask? The surveyor will probably have a number of questions about the library and the services it provides. However, according to JCAHO documentation, there are 4 basic concerns to address during the interview:
Again the responses to these concerns should reflect your organization and your library and information service. JCAHO wants to see that you are in touch with your organization and your users and that you provide the level and types of services that best meets their needs.
- Access
- How does the hospital make information available to the medical and nursing staffs, administrators and managers, other health professional staff, other staff in the organization, students, researchers, patients and their families?
- Assessment Of Needs
- How do you assess the knowledge-based information needs of your staff?
- External Databases
- What kind of access does the staff have to external databases, such as MEDLINE or the nursing indexes?
- Aggregate Data
- What kind of resources are available to support managerial decisions?
For example, how access to information for patients and their families is provided may vary according to your institution's vision and needs. Some hospitals may have separate patient libraries, some hospitals might refer the request for information to the patient education department within the organization, and others might form a partnership with other libraries to provide the information. All of these methods provide access and information to the customer.
What other resources are available to help prepare for the survey? The Medical Library Association (MLA) has just published Standards for Hospital Libraries and a fact sheet, Librarians Guide to JCAHO Accreditation, Standards for Hospital Librarians costs $6 for MLA members; $9 for non-members. A single free copy of Librarians Guide to JCAHO Accreditation is available from MLA for both members and non-members. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your request. These documents were developed by the Standards Committee of the Hospital Libraries Section of MLA and should be used in conjunction with the JCAHO manual. The MLA standards were written to compliment and further define the issues raised in the Management of Information chapter. For more information and to request copies of these materials contact MLA at 312-419-9094.
Connie Schardt is the library director at the NWAHEC Library, Rowan Memorial Hospital, Salisbury, NC. Article is reprinted by permission from SEA Currents, the newsletter of the Southeastern/Atlantic Region, v. 12, n. 5, September/October 1994.
