Joint Commission International Marks Ten Years of Global Accreditation

Joint Commission International (JCI) is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the first health care organization to be accredited under its international standards for hospitals.

In December 1999, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, became the first JCI-accredited hospital under the globally developed international standards. Israelita Albert Einstein has since achieved JCI Disease- or Condition-Specific Care Certification for its stroke program. ( See more on this JCI certification program elsewhere in this issue .) “Health care is a basic human right,” says Claudio Luiz Lottenberg, MD, CEO, and President of the Board of Trustees, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. “And JCI is the barometer for quality and safety as we meet patient needs.”

Since that first survey ten years ago, JCI has accredited or certified nearly 300 health care organizations and clinical care programs in 39 countries. JCI’s accreditation standards are the first and only international sets of standards that apply to health care organizations worldwide while still accommodating cultural differences.

For more information on JCI’s ten-year anniversary, see JCImages elsewhere in this issue.