The Joint Commission plans to establish a performance measures library that will provide stakeholders with ready access to reliable, tested and evidenced-based measures that can be used to improve the safety and quality of health care.

The first stage of implementation will focus on populating the library with the existing core measures and with measures recently developed or specified by The Joint Commission, such as the intensive care unit (ICU) and nursing-sensitive care measures.  The measures, including calculation algorithms and relevant data element definitions, will be posted here during 2006.  Future implementation phases will focus on converting the library into a fully automated, searchable web-based tool.  Eventually, the Joint Commission's library will incorporate externally developed measures that have been evaluated by the Joint Commission and found to meet rigorous criteria.

All measures sets in the library will be submitted to the National Quality Forum for its consideration and potential endorsement.