UPDATED: Policies Regarding Accreditation Status Following Cessation of Services.

Status Following Cessation of Services The Joint Commission recently updated two policies— Accreditation Status of Organizations That Cease Services After a Disaster and Accreditation Status of Organizations That Cease Services or Do Not Have Patients for a Period of Time—as a result of an ongoing review of accreditationrelated policies. The updated language is effective immediately for all accreditation programs. The updated policies are shown in the box below (new text is underlined and deleted text is shown in strikethrough) and will be published electronically for all programs via E-dition® this spring. For the ambulatory care, behavioral health care, home care, and hospital programs, the updated policies will appear in print this spring in the 2015 Update 1 to the Comprehensive Accreditation Manuals. For the critical access hospital, laboratory, nursing care centers, and officebased surgery programs, the revisions will appear in print in fall 2015, as these programs no longer have a hard copy Subscription Update Service (see November 2014 Perspectives, pages 5 and 6). p