The Joint Commission has announced it will reinstate an anti-discrimination requirement that had been removed.
As of July 1, 2010, this requirement—deleted originally in 2003 with the thought that it was covered under other, existing standards—will be reinstated because of research on who those requirements cover. In fact, existing requirements usually only effect employees, and thus physicians, who are most often not hospital employees, were not covered under the requirements.
The changes will impact two Elements of Performance (EP) in the medical staff standards: EP MS.06.01.07 and EP MS.07.01.01 (discussing gender, race, creed, national origin).
The decision follows a request by the American Medical Association's Women Physician's Congress that the requirement be put back into place.
Matt Phillion, CSHA, is senior managing editor of Briefings on The Joint Commission and senior editorial advisor for the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (AHAP).