The Joint Commission will begin conducting off-site (virtual) reviews for the following programs reviewed under the Comprehensive Certification Manual for Disease-Specific Care, as well as programs certified under the Palliative Care Certification Manual, with recertification due dates on or after Jan. 1, 2025:
- Core disease-specific care programs (see the list of core programs below)
- Advanced disease-specific care programs, including the following:
- Acute Heart Attack Ready
- Acute Stroke Ready Hospital
- Palliative care program
Organizations seeking initial certification for one or more of the listed programs will have their review conducted on-site. This new off-site review option will be the default model for every other recertification cycle. Disease-specific care programs that qualify for this off-site recertification review can request an on-site review by contacting their account executive during application processing. However, core disease-specific care programs that are reviewed with one or more advanced programs must request an on-site review so the core program(s) and advanced program(s) can be reviewed consecutively.
The available review models for all Joint Commission certification programs are listed below.
For questions regarding the off-site review option, please contact your account executive.
Off-site review every other recertification cycle after the initial certification
- Advanced Disease-Specific Care Programs
- Acute Heart Attack Ready
- Acute Stroke Ready Hospital
- Core Disease-Specific Care Programs*
- Cardiovascular
- Gastrointestinal
- General Medical
- Hematology/Oncology
- Neurological
- Orthopedic
- Pediatric
- Physical Medicine/Rehabilitation
- Pulmonary
- Wound Care
- Health Care Equity
- Palliative Care
* For clinical descriptions, see Table 1. Core Disease States, Conditions, and Procedures Certified Under Disease-Specific Care Standards, in The Joint Commission Certification Process (CERT) chapter of the Comprehensive Certification Manual for Disease-Specific Care.
On-site review every recertification cycle, including initial certification
- Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care
-
Advanced Disease-Specific Care Programs
- Advanced Certification for Spine Surgery
- Advanced Certification in Heart Failure
- Chronic Kidney Disease
- Comprehensive Heart Attack Center
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Comprehensive Stroke Center
- Inpatient Diabetes Care
- Lung Volume Reduction Surgery
- Primary Heart Attack Center
- Primary Stroke Center
- Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center
- Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement
- Ventricular Assist Device
- Comprehensive Cardiac Center
- Integrated Care
- Medication Compounding
- Patient Blood Management
On-site review every reverification cycle, including initial verification
- Maternal Levels of Care Verification
Off-site recertification review only, including initial certification review
- Health Care Staffing Services
- Responsible Use of Health Data
- Sustainable Healthcare
A new, publicly available resource is available from the National Quality Forum (NQF) to help organizational leaders and clinical care teams in acute care settings implement or improve hospital-onset bacteremia and fungemia (HOB) prevention, identification, and treatment initiatives.
The Hospital-Onset Bacteremia and Fungemia Playbook also is the topic of an upcoming NQF webinar on Oct. 31, 2024, at 3 pm ET.
HOB is any bloodstream infection where bacterial or fungal pathogens are detected from a blood culture specimen collected on day four or later of hospital admission. The release of the HOB Playbook comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is taking steps to address HOB by refining a recently endorsed quality measure.
NQF is an affiliate of The Joint Commission.