Yesterday I received an email from HLS-list regarding the Joint Commission proposed changes. So I have reposted the email sent by Katherine Stemmer Frumento for all you who might be interested.

"At the 15th Annual Invitational Liaison Forum, which was held last week, Carla Funk and I had the opportunity to meet on Wednesday, 7/11 with Dr. Robert Wise, the Joint Commission's Vice President, Standards and Survey Methods. Dr. Wise acknowledged our concerns, thanked us for all of the input that we, other health sciences librarians, and members of the medical community had provided on the Management of Information Standards. He assured us that none of the proposed changes to the Standards would go into effect, if at all, until the entire standards review process was completed and additional input was requested from the field. There will be another comment period in mid-2008 concerning the entire document, with the revised standards going into effect in January 2009. Our meeting was very positive. Dr. Wise agreed with us about the importance of retaining the concept of evidence-based information in the Standards. Carla and
I stressed the importance of staff and patients having access to evidence-based information and to the services of a qualified health sciences librarian in obtaining that information. Dr. Wise was very cordial, gave us his card, and urged us to contact him with any future concerns. We also talked informally with Dr. Paul Schyve, Senior Vice President and honorary MLA member. Dr. Schyve also expressed his concern about the importance of retaining the evidence-based
information standard. Carla and I will continue to monitor the situation and send out an alert to the membership when the next comment period begins. Thanks again to all of you who responded to the survey."