New and revised workplace violence prevention requirements for home care organizations

New and revised workplace violence prevention requirements for Joint Commission accredited home care organizations are effective Jan. 1, 2025. Workplace violence poses a significant occupational hazard for home care workers. However, the prevalence may be underestimated due to underreporting, as incidents are often perceived as minor. Inadequate training also contributes to the problem.

The Joint Commission previously implemented accreditation requirements on workplace violence prevention in its behavioral health care and human services, critical access hospital, and hospital programs. To assess the suitability of extending these requirements to home care settings, The Joint Commission:

• Conducted a literature review.
• Gathered feedback from current accredited organizations.
• Convened a technical advisory panel of representatives from various public and private organizations as well as Joint Commission accredited home care organizations.

The new and revised requirements provide a framework to guide home care organizations across various settings to develop effective workplace violence prevention strategies. The requirements address the following:

• Defining workplace violence, including a formal definition added to the Glossary
• Outlining leadership oversight
• Developing policies and procedures to prevent workplace violence
• Reporting systems, data collection, and analysis
• Implementing post-incident strategies
• Providing training and education to decrease workplace violence

The new and revised requirements will be posted on the Prepublication Standards page of The Joint Commission’s website and will publish online in the fall 2024 E-dition^® update to the home care manual. For those who purchase them, the 2025 hard-copy and PDF versions of the manual will include the new and revised standards.

For more information, please contact The Joint Commission’s Global Accreditation and Certification Product Development via the Standards Online Submission Form.

See the prepublication standards Learn more about the prepublication standards