Top 10 most-cited Joint Commission standards

For the last several years, The Joint Commission's semiannual list of the most-cited standards has read like a scene from Groundhog Day. Essentially, the same 10 standards are cited over and over; Environment of Care (EC) and Life Safety (LS) issues routinely top the list, while a couple of other standards rotate in and out.

"The thing to keep in mind is the top 10 is heavily influenced by the fact that engineers were introduced to the environmental assessment," says Kate Fenner, managing director of Compass Clinical Consulting. "EC and LS are covered by one dedicated person whose sole focus is to survey these standards, where physician and nurse surveyors have 1,800+ standards to hit."

This is an excerpt from an article in Briefings on The Joint Commission. Visit here to log in or subscribe.