Benefits & Disadvantages of the Joint Commission

The Joint Commission is a private, not-for-profit organization that inspects, accredits and certifies health-care organizations, such as hospitals and laboratories. According to its website, the commission accredits and certifies more than 17,000 U.S.-based health care organizations and programs, including more than 80 percent of all hospitals. Although the dominant health care certifier in the United States, the commission does have a number of drawbacks.

Benefit: Sets Health Care Standards

• The main benefit of the Joint Commission is that it helps set national standards for health care providers. Accreditation or certification by the Joint Commission requires health care organizations meeting certain criteria related to facility maintenance and patient care. An endorsement of a program by the Joint Commission gives patients confidence that the program meets basic levels of competence and quality.

Disadvantage: Lenient

• Although the Joint Commission states that its standards for hospitals and other facilities are extremely rigorous, critics have assailed them for being too lenient. According to the Washington Post, the Joint Commission certifies nearly all hospitals that it inspects -- about 99 percent. All facilities, except for laboratories, are only required to have one inspection every three years.

Benefit: Makes Information Available to the Public

• In order to evaluate the care provided by the organizations it accredits and certifies, the Joint Commission collects information related to the organizations' performance. This information is used by the commission to formulate scores for each organization, allowing prospective patients to better estimate the quality of care they would receive at a particular facility. However, as the consumer watchdog Public Citizen points out, most of the information that the commission collects remains unseen by the public.

Disadvantage: Controlled By People It Regulates

• According to Public Citizen, the Joint Commission is governed by a board of commissioners. Three-fourths of the seats on the board are occupied by corporate members from the health care industry. According to the Washington Post, the commission also receives significant consulting fees from the organizations it is charged with evaluating, creating a conflict of interest.

Benefits: Improves Patient Care

• If hospitals and other health care programs had no body to accredit them and assuring prospective patients that they met certain standards, it is likely that in at least some programs the quality of patient care would fall. By acting as a pseudo-regulatory body -- one that regulates on the basis of public opinion -- the Joint Commission can raise the overall quality of patient care.

Disadvantage: Makes Health Care More Expensive

• According to the Washington Post, the Joint Commission takes in about $113 million in revenue each year, most of it deriving from the fees it charges hospitals. This cost ultimately gets passed on to patients in the form of higher fees, making health care less affordable.