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91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ

Founded in 1951, 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ accredits and certifies more than 22,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including hospitals and health care organizations that provide ambulatory and office-based surgery, behavioral health, home health care, laboratory and nursing care center services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ has a nonprofit affiliate organization: ® (JCR) offers educational services, publications, and software to complement your accreditation experience. ®, a division of JCR, accredits and certifies international health care organizations.

No. Health care organizations, programs, and services voluntarily pursue accreditation and certification.

Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ surveyors visit accredited health care organizations a minimum of once every 36 months (two years for laboratories) to evaluate standards compliance. This visit is called a survey. All regular Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ accreditation surveys are unannounced.

Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ surveyors are highly trained experts who are doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, laboratory medical technologists, and other health care professionals. 

During the survey, surveyors select patients randomly and use their medical records as a roadmap to evaluate standards compliance. As surveyors trace a patient’s experience in a health care organization, they talk to the doctors, nurses, and other staff who interacted with the patient. Surveyors also observe doctors and nurses providing care, and often speak to the patients themselves.

Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ accreditation does not begin and end with the on-site survey. It is a continuous process. Every time a nurse double-checks a patient’s identification before administering a medication, every time a surgical team calls a" time out" to verify they agree they’re about to perform the correct procedure, at the correct site, on the correct patient, they live and breathe the accreditation process. Throughout the accreditation cycle, organizations are provided with a self-assessment scoring tool to help monitor their ongoing standards compliance. Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ accreditation is woven into the fabric of a health care organization’s operations.

91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ’s state-of-the-art standards focus on patient safety and quality of care. 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ standards are updated regularly to reflect the rapid advances in health care and medicine. The hospital accreditation standards number more than 250, and address everything from patient rights and education, infection control, medication management, and preventing medical errors, to how the hospital verifies that its doctors, nurses, and other staff are qualified and competent, how it prepares for emergencies, and how it collects data on its performance and uses that data to improve itself.

91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ typically renders accreditation decisions two weeks to two months after the survey.

Accreditation is awarded for three years, except for laboratory accreditation, which is awarded for two years. Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ Disease-Specific Care Certification and Health Care Staffing Services Certification are awarded for two years.

Visit our accredited organizations search to find information about care providers accredited by 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ.

We appreciate your cooperation in letting us know that you would like to link your website to ours and ask that you follow these guidelines.

Organizations are not allowed to use 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ logo on their websites. Only Joint 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-accredited and certified organizations may use The Gold Seal of Approval®. See our Accreditation or Certification publicity kits for downloadable seals and guidelines for their use.

Other health-care related organizations may not use 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ logo or The Gold Seal of Approval but may link to our site. Here are some important tips to remember when linking to our site:

  1. Link to our home page at www.jointcommission.org. The link should be referenced as ‘91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ’. We realize the desire to link to specific pages, however, please be aware that URLs to specific pages can change or the page may be deleted. We recommend the linking organization regularly check for broken links.
  2. Open a new browser window when linking to our site.
  3. Do not frame our content or do anything that might make a visitor believe that our content is your own.

For additional questions, please visit our contact us page.