Starting this year, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations will conduct on-site accreditation surveys and certification reviews on an unannounced basis. This major policy change applies to all of the more than 15,000 healthcare organizations it accredits or certifies. From 2006 through 2008, the unannounced survey will occur in the year in which the organization is due for its next survey. Subsequent unannounced surveys will occur during an interval of 18 to 39 months after the organization’s previous unannounced survey. The timing of subsequent on-site evaluations will be determined by pre-established criteria that relate in substantial measure to continuous JCAHO monitoring of organization performance data and information. For-cause unannounced surveys will continue to be conducted whenever warranted.
JCAHO will continue to conduct one-day random unannounced surveys of an annual 5% sample of organizations that have not yet undergone full unannounced surveys. Over time, these unannounced surveys will be replaced by random unannounced on-site evaluations of steps that accredited organizations have taken to remediate previous citations. Read the JCAHO announcement.
