Joint Commission Says Revised Standards Will Improve Care
The Joint Commission's (JC) revised standards, rationales, and elements of performance for 2009 are now posted on the JC's Web site at<www.jointcommission.org>.
The standards will take effect January 1, 2009.
The changes are part of the Standards Improvement Initiative (SII), launched in 2006 as part of the JC's ongoing quality-improvement efforts. The SII focuses on clarifying standards language, ensuring that standards are program specific, deleting redundant and nonessential standards, and consolidating similar standards. While no new requirements were added, chapter overviews, standards, introductions, rationales, and elements of performance were redesigned for ease of use.
In the standards reorganization, requirements were split or consolidated. Standards have been renumbered and reordered to allow electronic sorting and the addition of new requirements in the future.
“The Standards Improvement Initiative represents the Joint Commission's continuous commitment to make the standards clear, relevant, and applicable in the specific health care setting in which they are used,” says Mark Chassin, M.D., M.P.H., JC president, in a statement issued with the release of the revised standards. “These changes will better guide health care organizations in providing patients with the best care possible.”
A history-tracking feature allows users to see what happened to each standard, its new number, and how it changed.
Chassin said the JC will engage in extensive education efforts and discussions in the coming months to assist organizations in understanding the changes.
These are other important aspects of the SII:
Phase 1 of the SII focused on the accreditation programs for hospitals, critical-access hospitals, ambulatory care, office-based surgery, and home-care organizations. | |||||
SII's phase 2 for behavioral health care, laboratory, and long-term-care accreditation programs began in 2008, and the related standards changes will take effect in January 2010. | |||||
Changes in the scoring and decision process will take place January 1, 2009, for all accreditation and certification programs. | |||||
Single-user licenses for electronic editions of the manuals will be provided for the first time. | |||||
Color-coded tabs in print manuals distinguish standards and requirements from accreditation policies and procedures. ▪ | |||||
