New JCI standard and systems

With the publication of the 6th edition, JCI Accreditation is implementing changes to the survey process in 2017.

With the publication of the Joint Commission International Accreditation Standards for Hospitals, 6th edition, JCI Accreditation is implementing changes to the survey process in 2017. The intention is to encourage JCI-accredited organizations to pursue a more effective continuous compliance framework and to align more closely to the patient safety philosophy that lies at the core of JCI’s standards.

Currently, hospitals must meet the requirements of five decision rules in order to be accredited. The decision rules have been reviewed and updated to maintain their relevance.

JCI Accreditation has made changes to these rules from 1 July 2017. Details have been published in the Joint Commission International Survey Process Guide for Hospitals, 6th edition.

JCI wants to encourage organizations that are starting on the JCI accreditation journey to be well prepared. These health care organizations should establish sustainable processes and systems that will enable them to be in continuous and robust compliance with JCI’s accreditation standards. Hospitals that will undergo their first survey on 1 January 2018 or later are required to have a six-month track record (increased from four months).

Once a health care organization receives JCI accreditation, it should strive to implement policies, procedures, and processes that support continuous compliance with the standards as well as year-round data collection and recordkeeping.

From January 2018, JCI Accreditation will begin actively informing all hospitals undergoing surveys that continuous compliance with the standards must be in place starting the day after their accreditation survey.

The intent is that for any survey conducted on or after 1 January 2021, JCI surveyors will be able to evaluate the performance of an organization and the effectiveness of its systems by looking as far back as the date of the organization’s previous survey.