TJC & CMS News Blog Information
for Hospitals and Behavioral Healthcare
To read articles written prior to January 2015, please view our Newsletter Archive.
Does Your Budget Reflect Accreditation Survey Readiness?
Budget season is almost upon us, and it is one of the few times each year when behavioral health leaders can step back from day-to-day operations and decide where to invest limited resources. Sometimes, accreditation survey readiness doesn't always make the final cut....
Grievances as Early Warning Signs: What Surveyors—and Healthcare Leaders—Want Organizations to Recognize
Every patient complaint tells a story. Sometimes it's about poor communication. Sometimes it's a delay in care, confusion about treatment, or concerns over safety. While an individual grievance may seem isolated, a pattern of grievances often reveals something much...
Hospital Construction Compliance – Building Walkthroughs You Don’t Want to Miss
Many healthcare construction projects focus heavily on substantial completion and occupancy dates. However, construction teams often discover significant accreditation and regulatory findings during the final stages of construction, often after installing expensive...
The Most Expensive Compliance Mistakes are Made Before Construction Begins
The most expensive compliance problem in healthcare construction is the one discovered after the building is complete. Every healthcare construction project progresses through three critical design phases: Schematic Design (SD), Design Development (DD), and...
CMS Strengthens Oversight of Accrediting Organizations: What It Means for Your Accreditation Strategy
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently finalized new requirements that significantly change how Accrediting Organizations (AOs) and their affiliated consulting entities interact with healthcare providers and suppliers seeking accreditation....
How Accreditation and Regulatory Compliance Impact Behavioral Healthcare Construction Projects
Behavioral healthcare organizations invest millions of dollars in new construction, replacement facilities, expansions, and major renovations. Yet one of the most common mistakes organizations make is treating accreditation and regulatory compliance as a final hurdle...
Same Standards: Why 2026 Feels Harder
Over the past year, behavioral health leaders have been asking a similar question: If the standards haven’t changed, why do surveys feel more difficult? The answer is becoming clearer. In 2026, the challenge is about consistently demonstrating compliant processes in...
Inside the Psychiatric Hospital Survey Experience Under Joint Commission Accreditation 360
In 2026, psychiatric hospital surveys are not about confirming whether policies exist—they are about proving those policies work in real time. Under Accreditation 360, surveyors are evaluating how care is delivered moment by moment, following patients, testing...
Measuring Behavioral Health Outcomes: What CCBHCs Need to Know
For community behavioral health organizations, the greatest risks rarely occur during clinical encounters. They emerge between visits, during care transitions, and in the complex realities of the communities their patients call home. As care models evolve and crisis...
Five Emerging Psychiatric Care Models: Shifting the “Front Door” of Behavioral Health
Expanding crisis response services and evolving community treatment models are reshaping the behavioral health continuum. These developments present psychiatric hospital leaders with critical operational and regulatory implications. Increasingly, the Joint Commission...