Joint Commission Teams With Urgent Care Association of America

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — The Joint Commission and the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) recently announced that the groups will partner to provide an urgent care accreditation program.

Both organizations provide urgent care accreditation, but the UCAOA will discontinue its accreditation program and will support The Joint Commission’s ambulatory care accreditation program. The collaboration will include development of quality standards specific to urgent care, and is slated for introduction in 2010.

 Joint Commission accreditation includes on-site evaluation and compliance with rigorous national standards, said Charles Mowll, executive vice president of The Joint Commission.

“Achieving Joint Commission accreditation helps the urgent care center improve and provide the public with a marker of quality,” he said.

Urgent care centers are an essential part of the healthcare system across the United States and internationally, according to Lou Ellen Horwitz, executive director of the UCAOA.

“Our collaboration with The Joint Commission will help us continue to focus our quality assurance efforts specifically on urgent care, but on a worldwide scale,” she said.

 The Joint Commission has accredited ambulatory organizations, including those providing urgent care, since 1975. The Joint Commission was founded in 1951 and seeks to improve the safety and quality of healthcare.

The UCAOA represents urgent care sites across the country and earlier this year joined The Joint Commission’s Ambulatory Professional and Technical Advisory Committee to provide input on standards and other issues.

 The UCAOA was founded in 2004 and provides educational programs, sponsors urgent care fellowship programs, funds industry research and maintains an active online community for exchange of best practices.

For more information about urgent care or ambulatory care accreditation, contact Michael Kulczycki, executive director of ambulatory care accreditation at (630) 792-5286 or mkulczycki@jointcommission.org.        

Source: The Joint Commission