Facts about The Joint Commission’s public policy initiatives

To identify achievable solutions to critical issues affecting the quality and safety of health care, The Joint Commission launched a series of public policy initiatives. The Joint Commission brings together health care experts to discuss issues that are of greatest concern to health care leaders and workers to identify workable solutions, and assign specific accountabilities for action. The Joint Commission’s public policy initiatives are:

• Development of a National Performance Data Management Strategy
• Emergency Preparedness
• Health Information Technology
• Health Literacy and Patient Safety
• Hospital of the Future
• Nurse Staffing Crisis
• Organ Donation
• Tort Resolution and Injury Prevention
• Waste Reduction and Efficiency 

The following 'Health Care at the Crossroads' white papers are available:

• "Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future," published in November 2008
• “Development of a National Performance Data Strategy,” published in March 2008
• “’What Did the Doctor Say?”: Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety, published in February 2007
• "Strategies for Improving the Medical Liability System and Preventing Patient Injury," published in February 2005
• “Strategies for Narrowing the Organ Donation Gap and Protecting Patients,” published in June 2004
• “Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Community-wide Emergency Preparedness Systems,” published in March 2003
• “Health Care at the Crossroads: Strategies for Addressing the Evolving Nursing Crisis,” published in August 2002

Additional resources:

• “Standing Together: An Emergency Planning Guide for America's Communities”
• “Surge Hospitals: Providing Safe Care in Emergencies”

For more information about the public policy initiatives contact Terri Tye, director of Public Affairs, at ttye@jointcommission.org.