News

Joint Commission Issues New Sentinel Event Alert: Safe Use of Opioids in Hospitals

Although hospital patients may need the strong pain relief that only opioids can provide, a Sentinel Event Alert issued today by The Joint Commission urges hospitals to take specific steps to prevent serious complications or even deaths from opioid use.

Multimedia News Release

08/08/2012

New SAFE CARE Program to Provide Patient Education at Bedside and While Receiving Care

Encouraging patients and their families to take an active role in their health care by becoming involved and informed is critical. In celebration of Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 4-10, a unique patient safety education program will be released to provide patients and their families with instant access to current patient safety videos at their bedside and while receiving care.

Multimedia News Release

02/29/2012

JCR and The Joint Commission Announce Board Appointment, Reappointments

Joint Commission Resources (JCR) announces the appointment of Sneh Khemka, MBChB, MRCOphth, medical director, Bupa International, and an expert in eye medicine and surgery, to its Board of Directors.

Multimedia News Release

03/14/2012

Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals

Joint Commission Annual Report Names 620 Hospitals as ‘Top Performers on Key Quality Measures’

“Improving America’s Hospitals: The Joint Commission Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2012,” includes 620 hospitals that are leading the way nationally in using evidence-based care processes closely linked to positive patient outcomes.

Multimedia News Release

09/19/2012

Advanced Certification , Disease-Specific Care

The Joint Commission Awards First Advanced Certifications for Palliative Care

Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn.; Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.; Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York City; St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, Pontiac, Mich.; and The Connecticut Hospice, Inc. in Branford, Conn. have become the first hospitals across the country to receive Advanced Certification for Palliative Care from The Joint Commission.

Multimedia News Release

02/27/2012

New Monograph Aims to Decrease Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs)

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are a serious form of health care-associated infections (HAIs), with a mortality rate of 12 to 25 percent in the United States alone. Reliable access to the bloodstream is one of the most essential components of modern medical care, but bloodstream access devices introduce a risk of bloodstream infection (BSI).

Multimedia News Release

Related News: Infection Control, News Releases, CLABSI

05/16/2012

Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, Health Care Staffing Services

New Joint Commission alert addresses medical device alarm safety in hospitals

The constant beeping of alarms and an overabundance of information transmitted by medical devices such as ventilators, blood pressure monitors and ECG (electrocardiogram) machines is creating “alarm fatigue” that puts hospital patients at serious risk, according to a Sentinel Event Alert issued today by The Joint Commission.

Multimedia news release

04/08/2013

Two Leading Health Care Quality Organizations Hold National Summit to Build Consensus Around Ways to Minimize Overuse of Five Treatments

The Joint Commission and the American Medical Association (AMA)-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) hold National Summit on Overuse to build consensus around ways to minimize overuse of five treatments.

Multimedia News Release

Related News: Patient Safety, News Releases, Overuse

09/28/2012

Speak Up: What you should know about stroke

Knowing the early signs and risk factors for stroke and understanding that a stroke is a "brain attack" requiring immediate action can significantly improve a patient’s recovery and prevent future strokes, according to The Joint Commission's new Speak Up: "What You Should Know About Stroke" educational campaign.

Multimedia News Release

Related News: Speak Up, Stroke, News Releases

02/01/2012

The Joint Commission Publishes Patient and Worker Safety Monograph

The Joint Commission today released a free monograph, “Improving Patient and Worker Safety: Opportunities for Synergy, Collaboration and Innovation,” to draw attention to the need to create a culture that focuses on both the safety of patients and the health care workers who care for them.

Multimedia News Release

11/20/2012

Joint Commission’s New ‘Hot Topics in Health Care’ Urges Teamwork in Transitions of Care

The Joint Commission today released a new “Hot Topics in Health Care” that urges greater collaboration among health care providers in order to improve care as patients move from one health care setting to another.

Multimedia news release

Related News: News Releases, Transitions of Care

02/19/2013

The Joint Commission’s New Speak Up™ Video Highlights Patient Rights

Read up on the release of The Joint Commission's seventh episode in its animated Speak Up™ video series, “Speak Up: Know Your Rights.” This new video features the characters Mira, Dr. Pierce, Nurse Amy and Armando as they depict the rights every patient should expect from their care givers.

Multimedia News Release

06/26/2012

The Joint Commission Releases Speak Up: What you need to know about your serious illness and palliative care

Patients and the families of patients living with a serious illness or health problem may find help dealing with their emotional, physical and spiritual concerns by turning to palliative care, according to The Joint Commission’s new educational campaign “Speak Up™: What you need to know about your serious illness and palliative care.”

Multimedia News Release

Related News: Speak Up, News Releases, Palliative Care

10/10/2012

Ambulatory Health Care, Hospitals

The Joint Commission Offers Free Online Continuing Education Course

The Joint Commission today announced the launch of Strategies for Improving Rapid Influenza Testing in Ambulatory Settings (SIRAS), a free continuing education (CE) course designed for physicians, physician assistants and registered nurses who provide care in ambulatory settings. SIRAS was developed under a cooperative agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The Joint Commission.

Multimedia News Release

10/15/2012

Hospitals, Behavioral Health Care

The Joint Commission and JCR Present the 2012 Behavioral Health Care Conference

The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources are hosting behavioral health leaders from across the country at the for the 9th Annual Behavioral Health Care Conference to discuss the continued integration of behavioral health into the American health care industry.

Multimedia News Release

08/07/2012

2012 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award Recipients Announced

The National Quality Forum (NQF) and The Joint Commission have announced the 2012 recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards.

Multimedia news release

02/06/2013

Laboratory Services

The Joint Commission Launches Lab Central Connect™ Portal

The Joint Commission announced the launch of Lab Central Connect™ for accredited laboratories. The portal is designed to help Joint Commission-accredited laboratories centralize storage of important survey-related documents, as well as improve safety and quality by helping to maintain continuous compliance with Joint Commission standards. The portal could also be useful during an organization’s Intracycle Monitoring process.

Multimedia News Release

Related News: Laboratory Accreditation, News Releases

08/21/2012

Ambulatory Health Care, Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, Behavioral Health Care, Laboratory Services, Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Office-Based Surgery, Home Care, Advanced Certification , Disease-Specific Care, Health Care Staffing Services

First Day of the 2012 International High Reliability Organizing Conference Off to an Exciting Start

Day one of the Fifth International High Reliability Organizing Conference opened with a keynote address from Mark R. Chassin, M.D. FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission, on the topic of “High Reliability Healthcare: What’s Holding Us Back?” The conference, organized by Strategic Reliability, LLC, features academics and HRO veterans from diverse industries who will share practical steps to help organizations move toward high reliability.

05/22/2012

Laboratory Services

CMS Recognizes The Joint Commission’s Accreditation of Clinical Labs

The Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has again granted The Joint Commission deeming authority for the accreditation of clinical laboratories under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA).

Multimedia News Release

Related News: Laboratory Services, News Releases

06/21/2012

The Joint Commission and JCR Announce 2013 Board Reappointments

The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources have announced Board of Commissioners reappointments for 2013.

Stanford Hospital & Clinics Awarded First Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification

The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association together announced that The Stanford Stroke Center at Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, California, is the first hospital in the country to meet The Joint Commission’s standards for Disease-Specific Care Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification.

Multimedia News Release

11/16/2012

Ambulatory Health Care, Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, Behavioral Health Care, Laboratory Services, Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Office-Based Surgery, Home Care, Advanced Certification , Disease-Specific Care, Health Care Staffing Services

Real World Lessons Presented at Second Day of the 2012 International High Reliability Organizing Conference

Day two of the Fifth International High Reliability Organizing Conference opened with a morning plenary address from Kathleen Sutcliffe, Ph.D, professor of Management and Organization, University of Michigan Stephen Ross School of Business, on the topic of “Safety-Efficiency Tradeoffs: Lessons from HROs.”

05/23/2012

Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

The Joint Commission Debuts New Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Accreditation and Rehabilitation and Advanced Care Certification

The Joint Commission today announced its new Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Accreditation program, and for the first time is offering a Rehabilitation and Advanced Care Certification option. The Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Accreditation program, which replaces the Long Term Care Accreditation program, is designed to help providers achieve, maintain and demonstrate excellence in the services they provide.

Multimedia news release

01/07/2013

New “Take 5 with The Joint Commission” Podcast Series Offers Fresh Perspective on Health Care Topics

Health care professionals and others interested in improving health care quality and safety have a new resource — the “Take 5” podcast series from The Joint Commission, a series of casual conversations on health care topics.

Multimedia news release

Related News: Sentinel Event, News Releases, Podcast

04/22/2013

The Joint Commission and JCR Present the 2013 Emergency Preparedness Conference

Within just the past two years, NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, N.Y., has had to evacuate its staff and patients twice due to Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy. On May 1-2, 2013, Kristin Stevens, the director of emergency management at NYU Langone Medical Center, will present what hospital staff learned before, during and after Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy’s fury at The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources’ (JCR) 2013 emergency preparedness conference.

Multimedia news release

02/22/2013

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