Joint Commission Accreditation
Providence Health & Services owns and operates 25 acute care (hospital) facilities. All of our acute care facilities maintain accreditation by the Joint Commission, an independent and not-for-profit organization. The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care and evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 7,800 hospitals and home care organizations. In addition, The Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. Providence facilities with additional Joint Commission certification in disease-specific care programs are listed here (link to list).
The Joint Commission’s state-of-the-art standards focus on patient safety and quality of care. The Joint Commission standards are updated regularly to reflect the rapid advances in health care and medicine. The hospital accreditation standards number more than 250, and address everything from patient rights and education, infection control, medication management, and preventing medical errors, to how the hospital verifies that its doctors, nurses, and other staff are qualified and competent, how it prepares for emergencies, and how it collects data on its performance and uses that data to improve itself.
The Joint Commission standards do not address billing, insurance payment, or labor relations.
The Joint Commission also uses this information to produce publicly available Quality Reports on accredited facilities. Quality Reports are available online through Quality Check® at qualitycheck.org.
Quality Reports include:
- Accreditation decision and date
- Programs and services accredited by The Joint Commission and other bodies
- National Patient Safety Goal performance
- Hospital National Quality Improvement Goal performance
- Special quality awards
In addition, our hospitals may also be recognized by state quality and safety organizations in the communities where they are located.