Revisions to hospital requirements to align with recent critical access hospital changes
Effective Jan. 1, 2024, The Joint Commission has revised its hospital requirements to better align with critical access hospitals revisions and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoPs).
This comes after CMS reviewed The Joint Commission’s critical access hospital deeming renewal application, and The Joint Commission made several changes to its elements of performance (EPs) for critical access hospitals to better align with the CMS CoPs. Those revised requirements went into effect on Aug. 27.
The hospital changes include:
- New EPs to address the expectation for compliance with the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Life Safety Code® (NFPA 101-2012) and the Health Care Facilities Code (NFPA 99-2012).
- Environment of Care (EC) chapter revisions to remove references to alternative equipment maintenance (AEM) programs and manufacturer’s recommendations from the requirements for equipment maintenance.
The AEM and manufacturer’s recommendations language was removed from the EPs to clarify that medical and utilities equipment must be maintained, but it is up to the hospital to determine how it will perform that maintenance, whether it be through manufacturer-recommended maintenance activities and schedules or an AEM program.
View the prepublication standards. Questions may be directed to the Department of Standards and Survey Methods.