We recently started a new e-newsletter, Monthly Top Ten, which highlights the articles most frequently accessed for the month. In both February and March, two articles about The Joint Commission and its standards were in the top 10. Coming soon in 24×7’s April issue, Matthew F. Baretich, PE, PhD, has written an update on the 2009 Joint Commission Standards in our "Focus On" section.
Matt says, “The Joint Commission has begun implementing its Standards Improvement Initiative, which has broad implications for all of its accreditation programs. Here we are going to focus on changes in the Environment of Care standards for hospitals, particularly those related to medical equipment management.”
In addition to new scoring and renumbering, Matt says, “The Joint Commission has already begun making more changes in wording and even creating entirely new EPs without the comment periods usually provided.”
How does your department plan to handle the notation of these changes and the dissemination of information to those affected by the new standards? We welcome your comments.
