Are there any gaps in the policies/procedures or guidelines in meeting this standard? Identify the gaps and indicate what steps should be taken to address them. 2. If there are appropriate policies/procedures or guidelines in place on paper, are they being followed in practice.

To: Risk Manager

Re: Complying with the Joint Commission Standards for Caring for Forensic Patients

I hope this note finds you well. I am writing to provide a brief overview of our organization explaining how it has addressed the Joint Commission’s Pre-Publication Standards as they relate to providing care to forensic patients (Bell, 2019). The standard this note will focus on is standard the standard that healthcare organizations should provide education to their staff to identify victims of violence, abuse, and neglect, and be able to gather and protect physical evidence linked to a potential or known criminal act.

In other words, the standard requires healthcare organizations to educate their staff on identifying patients who are victims of criminal acts and how to collect physical evidence from the victims and store them for law enforcement agencies.

Our hospital has developed several policies and regulations related to forensic patient care. One of the policies of the organization is that only educated and trained personnel are allowed to care for forensic patients (Hogan & Olver, 2019). Staff at the emergency care are required to call a forensic physician and nurse to care for the patient and collect forensic evidence. The organization has created a forensic department to ensure that forensic patients are treated and cared for by trained staff. The department has two forensic physicians and four forensic nurses. Another policy the organization has put in place is regular education to healthcare staff to ensure that they are up-to-date with care practices for patients who have experienced criminal acts.

The organization provides all healthcare staff with forensic patient identification and management. The education program often focuses on many aspects of forensic patient care. One of the areas the education focuses training healthcare staff on documentation of all aspects of care offered to patients who are victims of criminal acts and the need to ensure that all collected evidence is properly preserved and stored (Papapietro, 2019). Forensic patients often need evidence collected by healthcare professionals during treatment for use in court.

If the collection and preservation of evidence are inappropriately done, then the patient can lose the evidence they need to seek justice for the crimes against them. Another aspect of the education program provided by the organization is local, state, and federal laws on how to care for forensic patients and evidence collected during the care process. The federal, state, and local criminal justice systems such as the state attorney often have policies on the information to look for when collecting evidence on forensic patients (Papapietro, 2019). The organization provides education on how to comply with the policies.

The organization also has a policy regarding providing education to new patients about caring for forensic patients. However, I still believe that the organization should do more to improve staff education regarding caring for forensic patients. I recommend that the education program include simulations to provide practical ways of educating the healthcare staff.

In conclusion, our healthcare facility has developed and implemented policies and regulations directing how our healthcare staff can be educated on how to handle forensic patients and ensure that the evidence collected is properly preserved and handed over to relevant authorities. The education program also informed the staff about federal, state, and local authorities’ policies regarding caring for forensic patients.

Yours faithfully,

Habert Johnson

References

Bell, S. (2019). Forensic science: An introduction to scientific and investigative techniques. (5th ed.). CRC Press. ISBN:9781138048126. Read chapters 1 & 2

Hogan, N. R., & Olver, M. E. (2019). Static and dynamic assessment of violence risk among discharged forensic patients. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 46(7), 923-938. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854819846526