By demonstrating compliance with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization’s national standards for health care quality and safety, Cumberland River Hospital and Cumberland River Homecare have earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval, hospital officials announced recently. 

“We sought accreditation for our organizations because we want to demonstrate our commitment to patients’ safety and quality care,” says administrator Andrea Rich-McLerran.  “We view obtaining Joint Commission accreditation as another step toward achieving excellence.”

“Above all, the national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in an organization’s performance and the outcomes of care,” says Kurt Patton, executive director, Hospital Accreditation Program, Joint Commission.  “The community should be proud that Cumberland River Hospital and Cumberland River Homecare are focusing on the most challenging goal – to continuously raise quality and safety to higher levels.”

Founded in 1951, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations.  The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 7,800 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 7,300 other health care organizations that provide long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services.  

The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities.  In addition, the Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs and primary stroke centers.  An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.