Hold on. Joint Commission revises… revised standards

Remember those new elements of performance (EP) The Joint Commission announced back in January? Well, for many of them, you can just ‘forget about it.’

The Joint Commission has, after discussion with the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS), reduced the number of changes from its January 5, 2009, announced standards revisions. According to the official announcement, the changes followed discussion with CMS about The Joint Commission’s deeming authority application, during which it was determined that a number of the requirements were already covered under existing standards or otherwise in the Joint Commission survey process.

The Joint Commission has backtracked and now eliminated the three new EPs in the EC standards and reverted back to the original lanaguage under EC.02.06.01, EP 20, which says that areas used by patients are clean and free of offensive odors.

New EP 4 under LS.01.01.01 remains, which requires hospitals to maintain records of inspections and approvals by local and state fire authorities.

The Joint Commission has published the changes here. A crosswalk of the March and January standards revisions is available here.

Stay tuned for further analysis…