Academic Medical Center Hospital Accreditation

When you choose JCI as your accreditation partner, you benefit from our decades of expertise. More than 1,000 health care organizations in over 70 countries have achieved the Gold Seal of Approval as JCI-accredited organizations. With JCI as your partner, you are choosing to commit to excellence across the spectrum of care that may elevate your organization into the global elite.

Achieving JCI Accreditation may:

• Drive ongoing improvements and foster a culture of quality, minimizing declines in performance between survey cycles and advancing towards reliable care and zero patient harm.
• Reduce variability and minimize patient safety risks
• Improve clinical and operational processes and build staff competencies and knowledge of leading practices
• Connect your organization with like-minded health care organizations around the world and facilitate knowledge-sharing and best practices
• Enable differentiation in a competitive health care environment and improve your ability to attract patients
• Strengthen your community’s confidence and make a strong statement about your efforts to provide the highest quality services
• Attract, secure, and retain the best talent who are committed to delivering quality care and patient safety

JCI is uniquely positioned to help academic medical centers through our evidence-based standards by providing the roadmap to building essential processes to achieve performance excellence.

In addition to the eligibility requirements for JCI-accredited hospitals, academic medical centers must meet additional criteria:

• The applicant hospital is organizationally or administratively integrated with a medical school.
• The applicant hospital is the principal site for the education of both medical students (undergraduates) and postgraduate medical specialty trainees (for example, residents or interns) from the medical school noted in criterion one.
• At the time of application, the applicant hospital is conducting medical research with approval and oversight by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or research ethics committee.

JCI surveyors are clinical and administrative professionals with extensive experience across diverse settings. They speak 21 different languages and hail from 6 continents, bringing their global expertise to your hospital. JCI’s accreditation process focuses on operational systems vital to patient safety and quality care.

JCI-accredited organizations benefit from a streamlined survey process and continuous collaboration through multiple touchpoints between survey cycles, driving quality improvements while minimizing downward quality performance trends in between survey events.

We support you with an objective assessment anchored in data and measurability, combined with continuous collaboration to drive quality and patient safety improvements:

• To earn JCI Accreditation, organizations must undergo a formal evaluation every three years. This process begins with an initial baseline survey that assesses the organization's specific settings and services. Upon successful completion, organizations are awarded The Gold Seal of Approval^®. Subsequent triennial surveys, required to maintain accreditation, are customized based on previous findings, touchpoint activities, new standards, and organizational changes, ensuring an efficient and streamlined process.
• Five virtual touchpoints between surveys, led by a JCI Survey Expert, drive ongoing improvements and foster a culture of quality. These sessions help minimize potential declines in quality and patient safety performance between survey cycles, advancing towards more reliable care and zero patient harm. Each interaction is tailored to the organization’s priorities and high-risk areas, featuring a structured agenda and clear objectives to drive improvements based on survey findings.
• JCI’s unique tracer methodology reviews how an academic medical center delivers care to the patient, helping to mitigate risks before they can become costly problems. Tracers engage both patients and staff, allowing organizations to show how they meet the standards beyond policies and procedures.
• The SAFER^™ Matrix  identifies and helps prioritize performance improvement efforts on areas with the highest risk of potential adverse outcomes.

Introducing the Pathway to JCI Accreditation. This easy-to-navigate resource outlines the five major steps health care organizations typically follow in their pursuit of accreditation. The milestones outlined within each step help your team organize activities and monitor progress throughout your accreditation preparation efforts.