Accreditation for Hospitals
In 1951, the American College of Physicians, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association joined with the American College of Surgeons to create the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH) as an independent, nonprofit organization whose primary purpose was to provide voluntary accreditation.
In January 1953, JCAH began offering accreditation to hospitals. Accreditation processes were subsequently developed for other healthcare organizations and programs—with a resultant name change in 1987 to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Further national accreditation and certification program development as well as international application ultimately resulted in a further name change in 2007 to The Joint Commission (TJC).
TJC seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of healthcare accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in healthcare organizations. TJC has the capability and experience to evaluate healthcare organizations across the continuum of care. Today, more than 17,000 healthcare providers use Joint Commission standards to guide how they administer care and continuously improve performance.