JOINT COMMISSION EVALUATION OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH-CARE ORGANIZATIONS

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has accredited behavioral health care organizations since 1957. Accredited behavioral health core organizations include organizations providing services to persons with psychiatric disorders, substance abuse disord ers, or developmental disabilities/mental retardation; or provide soci al services to other related populations. In the late 1980s, the Joint Commission initiated the redesign of accreditation to include perform ance measurement. Performance measurement initiatives include the IMSy stem Request for Indicators, National Library of Healthcare Indicators ,(TM) and a national Council on Performance Measurement. These initiat ives are steps toward the integration of performance measurement data into the accreditation process.