Joint Commission Guidelines

The Joint Commission (TJC), formerly known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, is an organization founded in 1951 that certifies and accredits health care organizations. To have achieved accreditation, the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval, means that a health care organization has maintained a high level of quality care and has met patient safety guidelines. The goal of the Joint Commission is to improve patient safety and the quality of care patients receive. They do this by issuing measurable standards with requirements that health care organizations must meet to become accredited and maintain accreditation status.

Compliance measurement

• The Joint Commission measures the compliance of health care organizations via unannounced surveys. TJC employs over 500 specially trained surveyors who travel to health care organizations to perform surprise surveys. Compliance is measured through observation, report review and staff interviews.

  Another tool TJC uses in measuring performance is a tool called the periodic performance review. Accredited organizations must regularly measure and annually review their compliance with each standard the Joint Commission sets forth. They are required to submit plans of action for areas in which compliance measurements fall below the targets required by the Joint Commission. TJC reviews this annual report and follows up with the organization for areas lacking compliance.

Joint Commission guidelines

• The Joint Commission has hundreds of guidelines that health care organizations must follow or else risk losing their accreditation. Each type of health care organization has its own Joint Commission manual. For example, hospitals have the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals. Within the manuals are dozens of chapters, which detail best practices for things such as medication management, environmental safety, patients rights, performance improvement and patient care. Within those chapters are many standards with sets of requirements the heath care organization must follow.

  In addition to those specific chapters, TJC sets national patient safety goals, a regularly updated set of standards put in place to ensure and increase patient safety. For example, there is a patient safety goal about health care employees washing their hands.

  Another patient safety goal is that health care workers use at least two different patient identifiers when providing patient care, for example patient name and date of birth.

  Another guideline is the "sentinel event" policy. Sentinel events are those in which patient harm, death, permanent disability or severe psychological injury has occurred. The Joint Commission requires these events be investigated and reported to them.