The dummies' guide to The Joint Commission

I received an email advertisement, and it left me saddened. It is for a book entitled The Joint Commission Survey Coordinator's Handbook. This was the text of the email:

Packed with expert advice, best practices, and sample tools and tracers, this book saves you from having to research and manage Joint Commission accreditation activities on your own.

Now in its 12th edition, this fully updated book by Laure L. Dudley, RN, MS, interprets The Joint Commission’s standards in practical, straightforward language that removes the guesswork for you. Discover what has changed in the past year, what you need to know about the standards, and what you need to do to comply.

So, I figured that this was the dummies' guide to the Joint Commission's standards. I was saddened to think that those standards are so abstruse that there is a need to translate them into "practical, straightforward language."

Then, I clicked on the book's image in the email and was taken to the real advertisement. Upon further review, I figured out that the book is not the dummies' guide only for hospital folk who are about to be surveyed by the Joint Commission. It is as much a guide for the surveyors themselves! The ad includes the following in addition to the text above:

Benefits:

• Find answers to all of your Joint Commission questions in one resource
• Remove the guesswork and hunting for the latest Joint Commission changes
• Gain confidence in your role as survey coordinator
• Become an effective communicator with staff and leadership

What’s new:

• Joint Commission Standards and CMS: Much has changed in the Joint Commission standards following the organization’s deemed status application. Find out how this affects survey preparation as The Joint Commission aligns closer to the CMS Conditions of Participation.
• The clarification process: One of the most nerve-wracking components of a Joint Commission survey is clarifying requirements for improvement. Find tips and suggestions for getting the most out of your clarification process.
• Insider perspective: This year the Handbook is written by a former Joint Commission employee and contains guest commentary by several other former staff, offering readers a distinct insider’s perspective.
• Updated Life Safety Code® for the non-engineer: Written by safety expert Brad Keyes, CHSP, discover how the Life Safety Code® is accessible to survey coordinators and other non-engineers.

I don't know if the book is an officially authorized publication of The Joint Commission. That point is blurred a bit, as there is an endorsement in the advertisement from someone putting herself forward as a surveyor. If it is authorized, it should say so. If it is not, it does not seem appropriate for a JC employee or contractor to endorse a publication by a third party.

Beyond this point, though, what does it say about hospital accreditation standards if there is a need for them to be translated or interpreted in this manner? What does it say about the training of surveyors if they need CliffNotes to do their job confidently?

Maybe this is just a clever company trying to make money from both hospital safety and quality folks and from JC surveyors. On the other hand, it is the 12th edition, so the book seems to have some staying power. And the author is a former executive director of The Joint Commission.

For years, I have been proclaiming the importance and value of JC surveys, having great appreciation for the dedication and expertise of the surveyors who visited our hospital, and noting:

I have often said that, if the Joint Commission did not exist, we would want to invent it. An objective outside review of this sort is extremely helpful to a hospital as it strives to provide better and better care to the public.

Each time I said that, though, observers from other hospitals would skeptically respond by saying that the accreditation standards are often recondite at best, but also sometimes in conflict with good clinical practice. Some of that is inevitable, and I am confident the JC is involved in its own process improvement efforts on those fronts. But, wouldn't it be nice if the 12th edition of this book were the last because it just wasn't needed any more?