JCI Announces New Primary Care Accreditation Program

(OAK BROOK, Ill., USA - 15 September, 2008) Joint Commission International's (JCI) newest accreditation program addresses the front line of health care delivery - primary care - where patients and their families most frequently initiate contact with their local health care community. Recognizing the importance of primary care in promoting patient health, JCI is making the standards for this program publicly available.

Primary health care is a main strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO) for achieving its goal of "health for all," and the WHO definition of primary health care provided guidance for the content and focus of these new standards. The standards were developed by an international panel of primary care experts and have been extensively reviewed by primary care providers in countries around the globe. The standards introduce the most important elements of patient safety to an organization and create the capacity for the primary care organization to continually improve its quality of services to benefit patients.
             
The new standards join the suite of JCI standards related to hospital care, ambulatory care, the care continuum, clinical laboratories, medical transport, and the certification of disease or condition-specific programs.
           
"Joint Commission International strives to continuously improve the safety and quality of care in the international community. This new accreditation program helps us to fulfill that mission," says Karen H. Timmons, president and CEO, JCI. "In addition to impacting care in individual primary care organizations, the standards will be useful to Departments or Ministries of Health for building up the capacity of their primary care delivery system to deliver uniform, safe, quality care to patients. Uniform access to quality services at the community level is one of the greatest challenges in public health."
           
For more information about JCI Primary Care Accreditation, please visit http://www.jointcommissioninternational.org or call 1.630.268.7400.