Approved: New and Revised "Emergency Management" (EM) Requirements for Laboratories
Effective January 1, 2025, The Joint Commission has approved new and revised “Emergency Management” (EM) requirements for all Joint Commission–accredited laboratories. The Joint Commission undertook a thorough analysis and rewrite of the EM chapter that reorganized requirements, renumbered standards, and reduced the number of elements of performance (EPs) by over 60% for laboratories.
The goal of the EM chapter rewrite was to aid organizations in developing a more comprehensive approach to emergency management and to help them be better prepared to meet the health, safety, and security needs of their facilities, staff, patient populations, and communities during emergencies or disaster incidents, whether faced with a natural disaster, cybersecurity attack, high-consequence infectious disease or special pathogen, or other type of emergency or disaster incident. As a result, the new and revised EM requirements provide more clarity with greater emphasis on the following:
- Assessment, applicability, and incorporation of the hazard vulnerability analysis throughout the entire EM chapter
- Leadership involvement and oversight in all aspects of the emergency management
- Staff education and training with specific guidance for initial and ongoing training in emergency management
The project’s program-specific R³ Report provides rationales for the requirements as well as references to the research articles and reports used to develop them. In addition to an extensive literature review, the new and revised requirements were developed based on voice-of-accredited organization feedback resulting from the pandemic, public field review, expert guidance from a standards review panel, and an internal EM workgroup.
The new and revised standards for laboratories are posted on the Prepublication Standards page of The Joint Commission website and will be published online in the fall 2024 E-dition® update to the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Laboratory and Point-of-Care Testing (CAMLAB). For those who purchase it, these revisions will also be included in the hard-copy 2025 CAMLAB .
For more information, please contact the Department of Standards and Survey Methods.
Publication Standards: