Every year in recent memory The Joint Commission (TJC) has made a point of revising, editing, and/or updating its hospital standards. Some years’ changes and revisions are quite modest, while in other years they are quite profound and extensive. This is true for what we have come to know as their Physical Environment Standards, which include the Environment of Care (EC), Life Safety (LS) and Emergency Management (EM ) standards.
Going back over 50 years we can see anything from minor tweaks in the wording of a specific standard to a complete overhaul of the content, numbering, scoring system, and even the addition and deletion, or relocation of entire sections of the standards. In all cases it has always been extremely significant from the accredited organization's perspective to know what these changes are going to be, as early as possible, to enable organizations to prepare their staff, systems, policies, and documentation programs to be as consistent as possible, as early as possible, to help ensure the highest level of compliance and best survey outcome possible.
Over at least the past 20 years, TJC has had a history of pre-publishing these standards in early fall and doing presentations giving specific change information to local and national organization meetings (such as ASHE) for their meetings and conferences. This year, unfortunately, things are different.
This year, unlike prior years, TJC has indicated that it will not be making the new standards available until December 2024. This has been conveyed through information provided on their website and confirmed through various conversations with TJC and Joint Commission Resources (JCR) staff.
In previous years, and even this year, TJC has advertised the importance of getting accredited organizations pre-publication copies of the following years’ standards so they can adequately prepare for upcoming surveys. Ironically, this year their stated intent is to get these standards to facilities a month or less before implementation. The implications of the late availability of these standards are likely to have a significant impact on accredited organizations, particularly ones that will be scheduled for survey in the 1st half of 2025.
In response to what we see as the potential need for additional support for our clients in 2025 we intend to:
- Notify our subscribers as soon as the 2025 standards related to the Physical Environment have been made available by TJC
- Provide our subscribers with an impact summary of key changes to the Physical Environment Standards once TJC has made them available
- Sending timely notifications to our subscribers regarding the impact that significant changes in standards and the standards process will have on upcoming surveys.
- Periodically add specific Monographs to our library on particularly difficult and complex issues including things like Performance Measurement and Monitoring, ILSM Program Management, Pre-Construction Risk Assessment, Conducting Annual Evaluations, Risk Assessment Process, etc.
- Conduct a mid-year webinar on the status of the impact of 2025 Physical Environment changes.
· If you are currently a subscriber to EC Online through Safety Management Services Inc., you will receive an annual renewal invoice when your subscription is due and pay by check or EFT, or you may email gw@compquail.com and request a link be sent to you from which you can register and pay for your upcoming subscription by credit card.
· If you are not currently a subscriber to EC Online you may sign up by contacting George Williams at Compliance CMS. Simply, click on http://econlinecms.com/ the site where you will be able to get a full program description, register for and pay for a 1 year subscription for 2025, and identify the names and email addresses for up to 5 total users per facility.
· Organizations who are uncertain if they wish to subscribe may receive a 2- week free trial by requesting it from gw@compquail.com .