How to Report a Complaint to the Joint Commission

The Joint Commission is an agency that provides accreditation and certification to health care facilities that comply with their high standards for quality and patient care. The Joint Commission sets forth hundreds of requirements, individualized to the type of health care organization. Being that they put patient safety first, the Joint Commission requires each accredited organization to educate staff, patients and family members on how they can submit a complaint to the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission makes themselves readily available to those with patient safety or other care issues. They have four different methods by which to report a complaint.

Instructions

Reporting a complaint

• 1

  Go to jointcommission.org and click on "Report Complaint" on the bottom left hand side of the screen. A link to the Joint Commission is provided in the References section of this article.

• 2

  Click on "Submit a new complaint." Select the state/country, city, and then the health care organization where the incident occurred from the drop down menus. If you are unable to find the organization from the options in the drop down menus, type in the organization's information in the fields provided beneath them. Make sure to have the organization's information with you as there are several noted required fields.

• 3

  Fill in your name and contact information, which will be kept confidential, in order to be contacted by the Joint Commission regarding your complaint and its outcome.

• 4

  Enter the date the incident occurred, and write a summary of what took place with as many details as you can remember. At the bottom of the page, select if you would like to be contacted. Click "Submit." You will be given a reference number for the complaint. Make sure to write it down so you have it if you need to update your complaint or contact the Joint Commission for any reason.

• 5

  Update the complaint (if necessary) by repeating Step 1 above and instead of clicking "Submit a new complaint," choose "Submit an update to a complaint." You will need the reference number provided when you first submitted your original claim.