To identify achievable solutions to critical issues affecting the quality and safety of health care, the Joint Commission launched a series of public policy initiatives. The Joint Commission brings together health care experts to discuss issues that are of greatest concern to health care leaders and workers to identify workable solutions, and assign specific accountabilities for action. The Joint Commission’s public policy initiatives are:

• Development of a National Performance Data Management Strategy
• Emergency Department Overcrowding
• Emergency Preparedness
• Health Care Professional Education
• Health Literacy and Patient Safety
• Hospital of the Future
• Nurse Staffing Crisis
• Organ Donation
• Tort Resolution and Injury Prevention

The Joint Commission’s public policy action plan, identified as a strategic priority by its Board of Commissioners, focuses on key areas related to patient safety and health care quality.  In approaching these issues, the Joint Commission:

• Convenes roundtables with experts and stakeholders who are knowledgeable about and affected by the issue. The role of the roundtables is to synthesize the problem and frame potential solutions and accountabilities.
• Develops and widely distributes white papers that include the prominent elements of the roundtable discussion. 
• Holds national symposia that permit in-depth exploration of important aspects of the problem and the solutions.
• Conducts follow-up regional summits or other activities to maintain the visibility of the issue and facilitate pursuit of its resolution.

The following white papers have been issued:

• "Health Care at the Crossroads: Strategies for Improving the Medical Liability System and Preventing Patient Injury," published in February 2005.
• “Health Care at the Crossroads: Strategies for Narrowing the Organ Donation Gap and Protecting Patients,” published in June 2004.
• “Health Care at the Crossroads: Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Community-wide Emergency Preparedness Systems,” published in March 2003.
• “Health Care at the Crossroads: Strategies for Addressing the Evolving Nursing Crisis,” published in August 2002.

Additional resources on these subjects include:

• “Standing Together: An Emergency Planning Guide for America's Communities”.
• “Surge Hospitals: Providing Safe Care in Emergencies”.
• Meeting the Challenge of ED Overcrowding, was held in February 2003.

For more information about the public policy initiatives, contact Terri Tye, director of public affairs, at ttye@jcaho.org.