Joint Commission News Releases

The Joint Commission today announced the appointment of Mark G. Pelletier, R.N., M.S., as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) in the division of Accreditation and Certification Operations.

The Joint Commission has launched a new Speak Up™ campaign during Mental Health Awareness Month to help people become better informed about the common warning signs of adult depression, how to get the most out of treatments for depression, and advice for how to speak up if they or a loved one needs help.

For the first time, The Joint Commission has awarded Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation to an inpatient kidney care provider DaVita Hospital Services. Denver based DaVita, with nearly 700 sites located in Joint Commission-accredited hospitals across the U.S., is a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.

Health care professionals and others interested in improving health care quality and safety have a new resource — the “Take 5” podcast series from The Joint Commission, a series of casual conversations on health care topics.

The constant beeping of alarms and an overabundance of information transmitted by medical devices such as ventilators, blood pressure monitors and ECG (electrocardiogram) machines is creating “alarm fatigue” that puts hospital patients at serious risk, according to a Sentinel Event Alert issued today by The Joint Commission.

The Joint Commission has released “Speak Up: About Your Pain,” an engaging animated video that illustrates the reasons why it is important for patients to speak up about their pain and provides easy-to-understand examples for the general public.

Within just the past two years, NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, N.Y., has had to evacuate its staff and patients twice due to Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy. On May 1-2, 2013, Kristin Stevens, the director of emergency management at NYU Langone Medical Center, will present what hospital staff learned before, during and after Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy’s fury at The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources’ (JCR) 2013 emergency preparedness conference.

The Joint Commission today announced it is now offering a new Primary Care Medical Home certification option for accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals.

The Joint Commission today released a new “Hot Topics in Health Care” that urges greater collaboration among health care providers in order to improve care as patients move from one health care setting to another.

The Joint Commission today announced the appointment of Daniel J. Castillo, M.D., as the medical director in the Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation.

The National Quality Forum (NQF) and The Joint Commission have announced the 2012 recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards.