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November 19, 2024

Joint Commission, NAHQ join forces on quality training, education

By Diane Eastabrook

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The Joint Commission and the National Association for Healthcare Quality announced a strategic alliance Tuesday to improve quality and safety workers' training and standardize their education.

The two organizations will remain separate and maintain their own accreditation and certification programs under the arrangement. However, the commission and the National Association for Healthcare Quality will collaborate on the development of micro-credentials tied to the association's Healthcare Quality and Competency Framework. One of those will be a credential on regulation and accreditation that aligns with The Joint Commission's standards.

The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting accrediting body in healthcare. The nonprofit accredits and certifies more than 23,000 healthcare organizations and programs across the country.

The National Association for Healthcare Quality has certified more than 40,000 workers and organizations in quality and safety over the past four decades.

As part of the organizations' partnership, The Joint Commission will endorse and encourage accredited entities to adopt the association's Healthcare Quality Competency Framework, which lays out the skill set required for a high-functioning quality program. The framework includes health and data analytics, patient safety and population health, as well as five other areas.

The commission will also encourage quality and safety professionals to receive the association's Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality Certification, which verifies an individual’s knowledge and competency in healthcare quality and safety practices. The Joint Commission will require its own surveyors to receive that credential.

The collaboration is part of an effort to make sure workers in healthcare quality positions, who often lack formal training in regulations and patient safety, fully understand those areas, said Dr. Jonathan Perlin, president and CEO of The Joint Commission Enterprise.

“Quality isn’t something you should just be assigned to. It is something you specifically need to train for and validation of effective training is that certification. That is why we are fundamentally endorsing it,” Perlin said. “We know supporting the environment through the people who drive quality really helps to advance the mission of safety, quality and value.”

Beginning next year, The Joint Commission and the National Association for Healthcare Quality will also jointly offer 25 workers in rural and underserved communities scholarships for the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality Certification certification.