Joint Commission’s Patient Safety System Chapter Focuses on Improving Quality, Safety Processes

​Designed with the C-suite in mind, the Joint Commission's new Patient Safety Systems chapter offers healthcare organizations a proactive approach to designing or redesigning a patient-centered system that aims to improve quality of care and patient safety. "We decided that it was time to put all the key concepts that would help organizations improve quality and safety in the same chapter," says Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, chief operating officer for the Joint Commission's accreditation and certification operations, at an October 19, 2015, session at the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management's annual conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. The new chapter, which is included with the accrediting agency's 2015 Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals, contains no new requirements; rather, it describes how the application of existing requirements and standards can be used to enhance patient safety.