TJC & CMS News Blog Information
for Hospitals and Behavioral Healthcare
To read articles written prior to January 2015, please view our Newsletter Archive.
Building a Culture of Safety: From Blame to Prevention
In the world of behavioral health compliance, we often find that the most dangerous risks aren't found in a missing signature or an outdated policy manual—they are found in the gaps where staff choose to stay silent. Whether you are managing a psychiatric hospital or...
Preventing Adverse Events in Behavioral Health
Preventing adverse events in 2026 should begin with a careful reflection: what truly drove the serious events of the past year, and how can those lessons shape a stronger approach moving forward? One pattern is increasingly clear. Harm in community behavioral health...
Preventing Sentinel Events in Psychiatric Hospitals
In North Carolina, a violent patient uprising triggered intensified regulatory scrutiny after investigators cited repeated supervision and safety breakdowns. In Hawaii, a patient who transferred out of state due to bed shortages died by suicide, prompting questions...
Governing Forward from the Middle – A Behavioral Health Leadership Shift
Accreditation outcomes in 2026 are being shaped less by formal reporting structures and more by how leadership systems function in real time.Whether governance sits with a board, an owner, a founder, or a senior leadership group supported by clinical advisors, one...
Behavioral Health Accreditation ROI – Designing Readiness That Supports Performance
In 2026, the most resilient Behavioral Health Centers have moved beyond the cycle of preparing for survey and into the era of "operational insurance." In an environment defined by staffing constraints and tightening margins, accreditation readiness is no longer a...
From Reporting to Readiness: How Psychiatric Hospital Boards Should Govern For Readiness in 2026
Psychiatric hospital boards are entering a governance environment where how oversight happens matters as much as what is reviewed. In 2026, accreditation risk is no longer confined to policies, audits, or frontline performance. Instead, it increasingly resides at the...
Scaling Behavioral Health: Why Accreditation Readiness is a Behavior Health Growth Strategy
Behavioral health is growing, and leaders are finding increasingly creative ways to expand. One recent example comes from SUN Behavioral Health’s acquisition of Seaside Healthcare, where a senior executive described the strategy this way: "By combining SUN’s...
From Checklist Compliance to a Focus on Outcomes and Value
As we close 2025, the landscape of behavioral healthcare looks radically different from what it did just twelve months ago. This year, we saw the industry move beyond simple "checklist compliance" toward a model focused on systemic accountability, financial...
The ROI of Accreditation – When Quality Pays for Itself
Long before “doing more with less” became a leadership cliché, Phillip Crosby, quality guru, known for the concept of Zero Defects and author of the influential book, Quality Is Free, showed that quality doesn’t drain resources — it protects them. Crosby’s classic...
Behavioral Health Staff Education – How to Make Learning Stick
Organizations face a growing challenge: accrediting bodies such as The Joint Commission (TJC) and CARF International require comprehensive behavioral health staff education and competency programs, yet modern adult learners often struggle to retain and apply what...