Spine surgery programs seeking The Joint Commission's specialty certification must complete the following procedures, according to The Joint Commission.
Here are five things to know:
1. An organization must perform discectomy, laminectomy and spinal fusion to be considered for certification.
2. The certification is charged as one disease program, even though it encompasses three surgical procedures.
3. Organizations seeking certification do not need to specifically note all areas of the spine where the procedures are performed, but rather just prove that the organizations perform as least one type of each procedure.
4. Only four performance measures are required because this is one certification. The measures don't need to be shared across all three surgical procedures.
5. A patient's primary diagnosis is used for data, even if the patient has two or three of the surgical procedures.