Click on the accreditation program links below to download the new requirements chapters.

• Ambulatory Care
• Behavioral Health Care
• Critical Access Hospitals
• Home Care
• Hospitals
• Laboratory
• Long Term Care & Medicare/Medicaid Certification-Based Long Term Care
• Office-Based Surgery

The Joint Commission reserves all its copyright protections to these posted 2009 standards.  In particular, without limiting its other rights, The Joint Commission absolutely prohibits the seizing of these standards for inclusion in products for sale, unless the seller has specific written permission from The Joint Commission to do so.

• The Joint Commission Perspectives, Special Issue, August 2008: 
  Improving the Accreditation Process: Countdown to 2009 (Requires Adobe Reader)
  (Click on your internet connection speed to watch video)  56K Video | 300K Video
• Video:  Introducing the Standards Improvement Initiative

Standards Improvement Initiative Timetable

The timetable for the release of the new standards, manuals and scoring information follows:

• July 2008:   Standards will be posted to The Joint Commission website
• August 2008:  Scoring information will be posted to the website (Posted 8/14/08)
• September 2008:  Hard copy manuals will be available for Phase 1 programs (ambulatory, hospital, critical access hospital, home care, office-based surgery)
• November 2008:  Hard copy manuals will be available for Phase 2 programs (behavioral health care, laboratory services, long term care)*
• November 2008:  Single-user access to E-dition (electronic manuals) will be available for all accreditation customers*

* For Phase 2 programs (behavioral health, laboratory, long term care), some changes and features will be available in the 2010 manuals and E-ditions since SII improvements are still occurring during 2009.

Standards Improvement Initiative - PowerPoint Presentation - Updated July