August 25, 2000

Regis Philbin isn't asking the questions. There is no million-dollar grand prize. But the tension is mounting in the MGH outpatient practices as employees wait to see who will win the "Who Wants to be a JCAHO Standardaire?" game.

Patterned after the popular TV game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" the MGH version of the game is a creative way to help employees in the outpatient practices prepare for the upcoming survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) which will take place Sept. 18 to 22.

"The game has been a lot of fun," says Suzanne Gautreau, administrative coordinator of Vascular Surgery and leader of one of the teams. "It has been a great way for our staff to prepare for the survey. It is really eye opening to learn about the different areas that the survey will entail."

Ten teams have been participating in the game, which consists of five multiple-choice questions sent by e-mail weekly. Each team of four people has two days to submit a final answer for all five questions. For help with the answers, team members can consult "life lines," including such resources as the JCAHO Standards Manual, the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals and the Infection Control Manual, as well as other MGH colleagues.

A winning team is declared each week and receives prizes such as pizza parties, Omni Theater movie passes and gift certificates to Coffee Central, the Eat Street Café or local restaurants. The teams accumulate points each week, with a grand prize winning team to be declared after the 10th round. Second- and third-place winners will also be named. The correct answers, along with explanations and the resources in which the answers can be found, are sent out to the teams and all of the practices each week.

Just like the TV game show, the JCAHO Standardaire questions started out simple, such as "How often does the hospital have a JCAHO visit?" (The answer is every three years.) With each round, the questions become more complex, such as: "Hospital employees may request to be excused from participating in an aspect of care if it is in conflict with: a.) cultural values, b.) ethics, c.) religious beliefs, or d.) a and c only." (The answer is a, b and c. MGH policy states that reasonable efforts must be made to honor such employee requests. Such requests, however, are granted only if patient care will not be affected negatively.)

"Some of the questions were not clear cut and really made you think," says Nancy Bryant, RN, unit nurse leader in the Medical Walk-In Unit and head of the team currently in the lead. "Some of them were more philosophical or could have had several answers. They generated interesting discussions among our team members and staff that we normally wouldn't have had."

Currently, Gautreau's Vascular Surgery team is closing in on the Medical Walk-In Unit team. In several recent rounds, the teams have tied with the right answers, requiring elimination rounds to declare a winner for that week. According to Gautreau, her team has been enthusiastic about the game and often agonizes over the questions before submitting a final answer. Gautreau herself even called into the office from her vacation on Cape Cod a few weeks ago to help her teammates with a question.

Bryant and Gautreau said that both teams found the questions helpful in making employees turn to information resources that may not have been used frequently. "An important aspect in preparing for the actual survey is to know what our resources are and to be able to use them if asked by the surveyors," says Bryant. "We all can't be experts in everything, but if we at least know where to find the answers, it will help us do well in the survey."

The game was the brainchild of the Practice Support Unit staff – Stacey Houghton, Henry Buszkiewicz, Sandra Santos and Kathleen Tivnan. "Our goal was to help educate the practices about a variety of topics that may come up during the survey and do it in a way that was fun for everyone," says Houghton. "All the teams really have been enthusiastic about the game, and many of the practices that didn't participate in the contest have been sharing the questions and answers with their staff to help them prepare for the survey as well."