460th Medical Group achieves Gold Standard

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Gabrielle Spradling
  • 460th Space Wing Public Affairs

The 460th Medical Group received a Gold Standard Accreditation after the successful completion of The Joint Commission Inspection.

TJC is a not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies health care organizations and programs across the U.S.

According to their website, the mission of TJC is to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value.

The 460th MDG commander, Col. Matthew Hanson, along with the rest of the medical group, have worked tirelessly to provide the best available care.

“The TJC accreditation process is the most rigorous, comprehensive quality and safety survey available,” said Hanson. “The Mile High Medics tackled over 1200 standards covering every product line and care environment.”

The accreditation process focuses on care coordination, access to care, and how effectively a primary care clinician and interdisciplinary team work with their patients.

“TJC surveyed all of our facilities, services and programs to ensure that we are providing safe, quality care to our Buckley forces and families,” said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Dustin Huntzinger, 460th Medical Group medical staff chief.

Throughout the inspection, the 460th MDG had their programs reviewed, staff interviewed and health facilities toured. However, the gold standard is not just a rating, it’s the highest measure for TJC compliance rates.

“We also received recommendations for improvement, shared ideas with our civilian surveyors and inspired our medics to provide the best possible health services to our patients,” said Huntzinger.

After this accreditation, the MDG will be taking everything from the inspection into consideration to continue to improve the healthcare provided.

“Now we will take the recommendations of our surveyors and move from 99.25% compliance today to 100% compliance over the next 45 days,” said Hanson. “After that we sustain our high-quality programs, improve the reliability our health systems and safely bring new services like dental on-line.”

The MDG has been working towards medical services being available onto base and the inspection provided them with knowledge to not only improve the already available services, but to better develop on-base facilities.

“This survey couldn't have happened at a better time,” said Hanson. “We are in the final stretch of moving the Medical Group onto Buckley and are confident that we conduct the moves without sacrificing safety and quality. The Mile High Medics earned their accreditation as a team and we couldn't be prouder of them.”