Joint Commission announces new requirement for THKR certification

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission on November 7 announced a new requirement of participation in a national joint replacement registry for its advanced Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement (THKR) certification, effective July 1, 2019.

The Disease Specific Care Performance Measurement (DSPM) standard DSPM.4, element of performance (EP) 2 will now require that:

*THKR-certified programs join the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR)

*data collected from the registry be used to analyze and improve processes.

The revision will go into effect July 1, 2019, for new certification applicants. Organizations certified before July 1 that have entered into contracts with registries other than AJRR have until the end of their contracts or January 1, 2020, to transition to AJRR.