TJC & CMS News Blog Information
for Hospitals and Behavioral Healthcare
To read articles written prior to January 2015, please view our Newsletter Archive.
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...
Beyond Discharge: Psychiatric Hospitals Demonstrate Compliance in Continuity of Care
Continuity of care is the hospital's consistent and coordinated provision of services to a patient over time, across different healthcare settings and providers. When done properly, it improves patient outcomes, reduces costs, and increases patient satisfaction. While...
Resilience in Behavioral Health Care – A Core Operational Requirement
Prefer Video? Video (6 min) Prefer a Podcast? Podcast (6 min) In today’s demanding behavioral health care landscape, resilience has evolved from a desirable trait into a core operational competency. For leaders of Community Behavioral Health (CBH) agencies and...
Make the Safer Way the Easiest Way: Process Redesign for Psychiatric Hospitals
Closing the Policy-to-Practice Gap In psychiatric hospitals, leadership responsibility extends beyond clinical excellence to include rigorous accreditation and regulatory compliance. Many programs have policies on paper, yet frontline workflows still allow variation,...
The Leadership Imperative in Behavioral Health
When working with Behavioral Health Organizations nationwide, one pattern stands out: having the most resources doesn't drive success, instead it's by having the strongest leaders. Leadership determines whether staff remain engaged or choose to leave, and whether...
The Five Persistent Gaps in Psychiatric Hospitals
Imagine the scrutiny a facility faces after a patient's death. When this happens, surveyors cite serious threats to patient safety—including the frequency of checks for patients in seclusion and the safety of the seclusion space—leading to a preliminary denial of...
AI Chatbots in Behavioral Health and Acute Psychiatric
The integration of AI chatbots into Community Behavioral Health (CBH) and acute psychiatric care offers a powerful opportunity to extend support and ease workforce strain, but it requires careful navigation of significant risks. Key Considerations Benefits: Chatbots...
Accreditation 360 Simplified: Your Guide for Behavioral Health & Psych Hospitals
The Joint Commission (TJC) is leading some of the most significant transformations we've seen in decades. Their "Accreditation 360" initiative, the most substantial update since 1965, signals a profound shift. It's designed to ease administrative burdens, sharpen the...