Joint Commission revises requirements for THKR program

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission on July 11 announced that effective January 1, 2019, it will implement a revised eligibility requirement and two revised requirements for the Advanced Certification for Total Hip & Knee Replacement (THKR) program.

The revised eligibility requirement and revision to the Performance Measure chapter of the Disease-Specific Care certification manual, require that hospitals, critical access hospitals, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) be active members of a national registry and use the data collected for the registry to analyze and improve processes.

The revised requirement added to the Delivery or Facilitating Clinical Care chapter, requires ASCs to have selection criteria to identify patients who can safely go home 23 hours postoperatively, and it provides examples of selection criteria.