Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 9,500 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,300 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. In addition, The Joint Commission also provides certification of more than 1,000 disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.
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No. Health care organizations, programs, and services voluntarily pursue accreditation and certification.
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Accreditation is awarded for three years, except for laboratory accreditation, which is awarded for two years. Joint Commission Disease-Specific Care Certification, Primary Stroke Center Certification, and Health Care Staffing Services Certification are awarded for two years.
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Joint Commission surveyors visit accredited health care organizations a minimum of once every three years (two years for laboratories) to evaluate standards compliance. This visit is called a survey. Starting in 2006, all regular Joint Commission accreditation surveys will be unannounced.
Joint Commission surveyors are highly trained experts who are doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, laboratory medical technologists, and other health care professionals. The Joint Commission is the only health care accrediting body that requires its surveyors be certified.
During the survey, surveyors select patients randomly and use their medical records as a roadmap to evaluate standards compliance. As surveyors trace a patient’s experience in a health care organization, they talk to the doctors, nurses, and other staff who interacted with the patient. Surveyors also observe doctors and nurses providing care, and often speak to the patients themselves.
Joint Commission accreditation does not begin and end with the on-site survey. It is a continuous process. Every time a nurse double-checks a patient’s identification before administering a medication, every time a surgical team calls a” time out” to verify they agree they’re about to perform the correct procedure, at the correct site, on the correct patient, they live and breathe the accreditation process. Every three months, hospitals submit data to the Joint Commission on how they treat conditions such as heart attack care and pneumonia – data that is available to the public and updated quarterly on qualitycheck.org. Every year, organizations evaluate their ongoing standards compliance through a periodic performance review. Joint Commission accreditation is woven into the fabric of a health care organization’s operations.
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The Joint Commission’s state-of-the-art standards focus on patient safety and quality of care. The Joint Commission standards are updated regularly to reflect the rapid advances in health care and medicine. The hospital accreditation standards number more than 250, and address everything from patient rights and education, infection control, medication management, and preventing medical errors, to how the hospital verifies that its doctors, nurses, and other staff are qualified and competent, how it prepares for emergencies, and how it collects data on its performance and uses that data to improve itself.
The Joint Commission standards do not address billing, insurance payment, or labor relations.
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The Joint Commission renders accreditation decisions two weeks to two months after the survey.
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See the following:
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Joint Commission Quality Reports give the public information on the safety and quality of care at the more than 15,000 accredited health care organizations. Quality Reports are available online through Quality Check® at qualitycheck.org. Quality Reports include:
- Accreditation decision and date
- Programs and services accredited by The Joint Commission and other bodies
- National Patient Safety Goal performance
- Hospital National Quality Improvement Goal performance
- Special quality awards
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