Joint Commission to Require Hospitals to Provide Prevention and Wellness Promotion Services in 2013

An article from FierceHealthcare noted how the Joint Commission recently issued new requirements for hospitals that provide health and wellness programs.  Institutions accredited or applying for accreditation in behavior healthcare must have a written plan, get input from the community and use evidence-based guidelines, effective Jan. 1, 2013.  The written plan must demonstrate how the organization provides prevention and wellness promotion services that are relevant to its mission and the scope of its services. 

An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.

Under the new rules, healthcare organizations must have staff who are trained or certified to deliver health and wellness services, although organizations may provide internal training. The Joint Commission also requires that healthcare organizations measure and review their wellness programs and make improvements when necessary.

The new rules come as more hospitals promote healthy living among their employees and patients by instituting no-smoking rules, enrolling workers into exercise programs or offering healthier cafeteria choices.  In addition to improving population health, such health and wellness services can give hospitals a competitive edge, experts said at the American College of Healthcare Executives’ annual congress in March.

In addition to the requirements noted above, organizations that provide prevention and wellness promotion services must:

• Seek input about the needs of the community served relative to prevention and wellness promotion services and use this information to guide its planning process.
• Identify those resources within the community (if any) that will be utilized to support the provision of the organization’s prevention and wellness promotion services.
• Determine whether evidence-based guidelines, promising or emerging practices, or expert consensus exists for the services it plans to provide. If such information does exist, the organization must determine whether it will use it to develop its services. 

The new measures also cover organizations who provide prevention and wellness promotion services that are managed.  The measures require: 

• The organization provides prevention and wellness promotion services designed to meet the needs of an identified community.  Communities are identified according to various factors, such as age, sex, ethnicity, culture, and other defining traits.
• For organizations that provide prevention and wellness promotion services: Staff who provide prevention and wellness promotion services are either trained or certified to provide such services. Training can be provided by the organization.
• For organizations that provide prevention and wellness promotion services: When new prevention and wellness promotion services are begun, the organization establishes baseline demographics of the population(s) that will receive these services by gathering its own data or utilizing existing data.