The Joint Commission (TJC)
The Joint Commission (TJC) is an independent organization that accredits and certifies health care facilities in the United States, including hospitals and medical clinics, with the goal of ensuring high-quality patient care through adherence to best practices. Established in 1965, TJC has significantly influenced health care policies by setting accreditation standards that hospitals must meet to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid funding. Originally focused on hospital care, the organization has expanded its scope over the years to include psychiatric hospitals, community mental health programs, and home-care services. TJC also plays a role in international health care through its subsidiary, the Joint Commission International (JCI), which accredits facilities in over 100 countries.
In response to evolving health care needs, TJC has adapted its accreditation processes to incorporate technological advancements and patient engagement strategies, including the recent development of a telehealth accreditation program in 2024. While TJC has been credited with improving patient safety and care quality, it has also faced scrutiny regarding the rigor of its accreditation processes, particularly in cases of medical scandals. Despite these controversies, TJC aims to continuously enhance medical oversight and ensure that health care providers deliver the best possible services to patients.
The Joint Commission (TJC)
The Joint Commission accredits and certifies hospitals, medical clinics, and other health facilities. Working as an independent body, it is designed to ensure that all health-care providers offer quality services to their patients through the use of best medical practices and streamlined facilities. In the United States, the Joint Commission reviews more than twenty-two thousand organizations. Additionally, the Joint Commission International (JCI) reviews health-care facilities in over one hundred countries.
Brief History
Since 1965, the Joint Commission has impacted American health-care policies. Before the establishment of the Joint Commission, doctors were exploring the need for standardizing hospital care. The American College of Surgeons was founded partially to meet this goal, and it focused on ensuring that the end results of patient care were measurable and tracked. By 1918, this work had lead to a list known as "The Minimum Standard" for hospitals and on-site inspections of hospital facilities by the American College of Surgeons.
In the 1950s, the American College of Physicians, the American Hospital Association, and the American Medical Association joined with the American College of Surgeons. This large body of medical officials was renamed as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals. The hospital inspection and accreditation program, which had previously been run by the American College of Surgeons, was then transferred to the Joint Commission in 1953.
When the American Social Security system was amended in 1965, policymakers ensured that to receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid programs, hospitals had to be in compliance with the regulations set by the Joint Commission. Based on this standard of certification, and the need to provide better oversight for other types of medical facilities, the Joint Commission began to branch out to include psychiatric hospitals and community mental-health programs. At the end of the 1970s, the American Dental Association also joined the Joint Commission, further expanding the organization’s reach.
In the 1980s, the Joint Commission continued to expand, including oversight for home-care programs, as well as new evaluation criteria that began to use electronic monitoring systems for medical safety and coordination. The Joint Commission also began to design more public-facing programs for implementation in the health-care facilities that they accredit. For example, the Joint Commission declared that smoking was to be banned in all hospitals that wanted to keep their accreditation.
In the 1990s, the Joint Commission both began to work with laboratory testing services and received approval from Medicare that ambulatory services accredited by the Joint Commission would be considered as meeting Medicare certification requirements. This streamlining of medical services from the site of an emergency to the hospital, and of hospital tests occurring within and beyond the lab, allowed for both improved patient care and a better procedure for billing insurance agencies.
Impact
Since its development, the Joint Commission has expanded from supervising hospital care to streamlining multiple types of care and facilities. Records of these changes and certifications have allowed both individuals and policymakers to ensure that the best possible care is provided, as well as provide a standard of what is to be done when problems occur. As the Joint Commission has continued to incorporate organizations and adapt to changing technological tools, attention has been paid to the ways that patients can participate in health decision-making processes. This has included working together with Medicare and Medicaid as well as designing technological platforms for patient-doctor interaction. To adapt to the increase in the use of telehealth services, particularly after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the early 2020s, in 2024 the Joint Commission designed and implemented a new accreditation program for organizations that exclusively use telehealth to provide care and treatment.
The success of the Joint Commission has been visible throughout the United States, as patient care, health, and well-being have improved as the result of clean and reliable hospital systems. Additionally, through partnerships and program modeling, the Joint Commission has expanded internationally and works with health-care services and organizations in more than one hundred countries around the world. The Joint Commission International (JCI) conducts the same work as the American office, accrediting and certifying international hospitals, clinics, and medical centers. Additionally, the international office meets with policymakers to advise about the development of medical care and procedures. For facilities that have already received or maintained accreditation, the Joint Commission and JCI provide a set of tools aimed at continuing to maintain and improve patient care.
While the Joint Commission and the JCI have had a large impact on the ways that medicine is practiced throughout the world, the organization has not been without controversy. There have been many questions about how the Joint Commission issues accreditation and if its programs are strict enough. Whenever a hospital or other medical center accredited by the Joint Commission faces a scandal resulting from poor judgment or improper care, there is likely to be an investigation into the Joint Commission’s accreditation process. These investigations do not aim to break apart the Joint Commission but to continually improve medical oversight and ensure the best possible patient care.
Bibliography
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Jiang, H. Joanna, et al. "Understanding Patient, Provider, and System Factors Related to Medicaid Readmissions." Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, vol. 42, no. 3, 2016, pp. 115–21.
"Joint Commission FAQs." The Joint Commission, www.jointcommission.org/who-we-are/facts-about-the-joint-commission/joint-commission-faqs/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
The Joint Commission History Timeline. The Joint Commission, www.jointcommission.org/-/media/tjc/documents/who-we-are/facts-about-the-joint-commission/tjc-history-timeline-through-2023.pdf. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
"The Joint Commission Launches Telehealth Accreditation." The Joint Commission, 23 Apr. 2024, www.jointcommission.org/resources/news-and-multimedia/news/2024/04/the-joint-commission-launches-telehealth-accreditation/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
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