Joint Commission History

Joint Commission

The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit group in the United States that administers voluntary accreditation programs for hospitals and other healthcare organizations (for example, long term care, mental health, and ambulatory care). The commission develops performance standards that address crucial elements of operation, such as patient care, medication safety, and infection control and consumer rights.

According to Rouse M. (2015), the Joint Commission standards function as the foundation for healthcare organizations to measure and improve their performance. These standards focus on quality care and patient safety. The Joint Commission develops standards criteria based on feedback and interactions with consumers,

• Draft accreditation standards are reviewed by field-specific Professional and Technical Advisory Committees (PTACs), which are composed of outside experts. Both accreditation and certification standards are reviewed by the Standards & Survey Procedures (SSP) Committee, a committee of the Board of Commissioners.

• The draft standards are distributed nationally for review and made available for comment on the Standards Field Review page of The Joint Commission website.

• If indicated, the draft standards are revised and again reviewed by the appropriate experts and/or PTACs.

• The draft standards are approved by the SSP Committee and provided to the Board for a comment period. Once that period of time has passed, the standards are final, unless the Board seeks further discussion.

• The survey process is enhanced, as needed, to address the new standards requirements, and surveyors are educated about how to assess compliance with the new standards.

• The approved standards are published for use by the

The committees involve individuals from diverse backgrounds who support health care institutions with three major functions: providing clinical ethics consultation, developing and/or revising policies pertaining to clinical ethics and hospital policy and facilitating education about topical issues in clinical ethics.

The goals of ethics committees are: to promote the rights of patients; to promote shared decision making between patients and their clinicians; to promote fair policies and procedures that maximize the likelihood of achieving good, patient-centered outcomes; and to enhance the ethical environment for health care professionals in health care