2009 Joint Commission Ambulatory Care Standards Available Online

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — The Joint Commission’s revised ambulatory care standards, rationales and elements of performance for 2009 are now available online. The standards will take effect Jan. 1, and have been placed online to give all healthcare organizations time to become familiar with the new language, ordering and numbering.

The changes are part of the Standards Improvement Initiative (SII), launched in 2006 as part of The Joint Commission’s ongoing quality improvement efforts. SII focuses on clarifying standards language, ensuring that standards are program-specific, deleting redundant and nonessential standards, and consolidating similar standards. While no new requirements were added, chapter overviews, standards, introductions, rationales, and elements of performance were designed for ease of use. In the standards reorganization, requirements were split or consolidated. Standards have been renumbered and reordered to allow electronic sorting and to allow the addition of new requirements in the future.

“The Standards Improvement Initiative represents The Joint Commission’s continuous commitment to make the standards clear, relevant, and applicable in the specific healthcare setting in which they are used,” says Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, president of The Joint Commission. “These changes will better guide healthcare organizations in providing patients with the best care possible.”

A history tracking report is available online to help organizations see what changes occurred from previous to revised standards. The history tracking allows users to see what happened to each standard, its new number, and how it changed.
 
The Joint Commission sought extensive input from accredited and non-accredited healthcare organizations, advisory groups, payers, purchasers, consumers, governmental agencies, Joint Commission surveyors and other experts. Online surveys, interviews, meetings, and focus groups were all utilized to gather comments and suggestions. The Joint Commission will engage in extensive education efforts and discussions in the coming months to assist organizations in understanding the changes.

Other important aspects of the Standards Improvement Initiative include:

• Phase I of the SII focused on the accreditation programs for hospitals, critical access hospitals, ambulatory care, office-based surgery, and home care organizations
• Changes in the scoring and decision process will take place January 1, 2009 for all accreditation and certification programs
• Single-user license electronic E-ditions of the manuals will be provided for the first time
• Color-coded tabs in print manuals distinguish standards and requirements from accreditation policies and procedures
• Accreditation program-specific language used in all manuals
• With E-ditions, ability to sort relevant standards and elements of performance applicable to the services provided by an individual organization
• Links from certain EPs to associated requirements in other chapter
• Standards and EPs related to a focused area of improvement placed in relevant chapters.

Additional details about the revisions are available on the Standards Improvement Initiative Web site, www.jointcommission.org/Standards/SII.