New TJC building and antibiotics requirements for 2020

Two new requirements from The Joint Commission (TJC) for the Life Safety and Medication Management chapters go into effect January 1, 2020.

Life Safety

TJC has made a new Element of Performance (EP) for LS.01.01.01. EP 7 says that Basic Building Information (BBI) must be provided on your Statement of Conditions. The BBI also must have the specific square footage of your facility’s buildings written in it.

Previously the requirement only asked for a range or approximation of square footage, but in TJC wrote in the July Perspectives that more specificity “will better assist Joint Commission surveyors when preparing for an organization’s building tour.”

This applies to hospitals, ambulatory healthcare centers, and critical care centers. The text of the requirement can be found in the prepublication standards page.

Medication Management

There is a brand new standard for ambulatory healthcare centers called MM.09.01.03, with five corresponding EPs. The standard is intended to promote antibiotic stewardship, a TJC initiative since 2016. Overuse and misuse of these medications have created infections that are immune to them, posing a danger to state, national, and global health. In one recent case, a dangerous strain of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infection was able to share its antibiotic resistance to a different strain of disease.

The new EPs can be read here and TJC writes that they’re are based around the following concepts

• “Identifying an antimicrobial stewardship leader.”
• “Establishing an annual antimicrobial stewardship goal.”
• “Implementing evidence-based practice guidelines related to the antimicrobial stewardship goal.”
• “Providing clinical staff with educational resources related to the antimicrobial stewardship goal.”
• “Collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to the antimicrobial stewardship goal.”