Hospital, CAH revised requirements on patient rights, complaint resolution, medical waste disposal

Effective July 1, 2024, The Joint Commission has approved revisions to several elements of performance (EPs) for critical access hospitals (CAHs) and hospitals related to patient rights and complaint resolution. These revisions maintain consistency between the CAH and Hospital accreditation programs and align the requirements more closely to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation.

In addition, Environment of Care (EC) Standard EC.02.02.01, EP 19, has been revised for both CAHs and hospitals to clarify that organizations need to account for the disposal of regulated medical waste in their procedures. Issues related to disposal of regulated medical waste will be scored at revised EP 19.

The revised requirements will be posted on the Prepublication Standards page of The Joint Commission’s website and will publish online in the spring 2024 E-dition^® update to the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Critical Access Hospitals (CAMCAH) and Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals (CAMH). For those customers who purchase it, the CAMH spring update service will include these revised requirements.

For more information, please contact the Department of Standards and Survey Methods.