Knowledge-based information management: implications for information services

The 1994 Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) standards for information management will change the way health care librarians respond to JCAHO accreditation surveys and may affect the way libraries are managed. This article will highlight the changes in the standards and the new opportunities they offer. Implications for library operations and the challenges inherent in working with the new Accreditation Manual for Hospitals (AMH) are also explored. The long-awaited 1994 Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Accreditation Manual for Hospitals (AMH) is now on most hospital library shelves. As expected, librarians will find that the section on Professional Library Services (the PR chapter) has disappeared and that the standards previously in that section are now incorporated in part into the new Management of Information, or IM chapter. Although this method of grouping standards may be new to many health sciences librarians, the incorporation of library services into IM may actually provide many more opportunities for librarians than the previous method of addressing library services separately.