TJC & CMS News Blog Information
for Hospitals and Behavioral Healthcare
To read articles written prior to January 2015, please view our Newsletter Archive.
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...
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of behavioral health compliance, we often find that the most dangerous risks aren't found in a missing signature or an outdated policy manual—they are found in the gaps where staff choose to stay silent.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...