2009 Joint Commission Standards: Now Available Online

The Joint Commission's revised standards are now available online. Additional details about the revisions are available on the Standards Improvement Initiative web page.

The timetable for the release of the new standards, manuals and scoring information is as follows:

• July 2008: Standards will be posted to The Joint Commission website
• August 2008: Scoring information will be posted to the website
• September 2008: Hard copy manuals will be available for Phase 1 programs (ambulatory, hospital, critical access hospital, home care, office-based surgery)
• November 2008: Hard copy manuals will be available for Phase 2 programs (behavioral health care, laboratory services, long term care)*
• November 2008: Single-user access to E-dition (electronic manuals) will be available for all accreditation customers.
  

According to the press release, "the standards will take effect January 1, 2009 and will be placed online to give all health care organizations time to become familiar with the new language, ordering and numbering."

The press release continues by stating:

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.