What Is the Joint Commission on Accreditation?

The Joint Commission is a nationally recognized organization that provides accreditation and certification status to a variety of health care organizations. To achieve the Joint Commission's gold seal of approval, an organization must demonstrate compliance with all of the commission's health care standards.

Manuals

• Each type of health care organization has a manual with hundreds of performance standards that the Joint Commission has determined to be the highest in quality health care.

Best practice

• The Joint Commission continually reviews the best practices for health care that will optimize patient care. The commission incorporates these practices into the standards that it enforces.

Periodic on-site surveys

• The Joint Commission assesses each organization's compliance through unannounced surveys, during which they perform direct observations, data analysis and staff interviews.

Periodic performance reviews

• The Joint Commission also requires annual periodic performance reviews. The organization must review and assess its compliance with the Joint Commission's standards and submit a report directly to the Joint Commission.

Accreditation status

• If a health care organization achieves the Joint Commission's gold seal of approval status, this means that it willingly puts patient's health and safety first by abiding by the Joint Commission's high standards of care.