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A single user license of the electronic edition, called an “E-dition”, will be provided free to Joint Commission applicants and customers along with the customary free copy of the print manual. The E-dition, which will be accessible online with a login and password, includes several features such as:

• Three ‘clicks’ to reach any standard and its full description, rationale, and elements of performance with scoring criteria.
• Historical crosswalks between the 2008 and 2009 standards.
• Keyword search capability across manuals.
• Applicability filters to show only those standards that apply to a particular health care setting, such as ambulatory care organizations offering diagnostic/therapeutic imaging.

The E-dition will also include the ability for users to e-mail standards and will have community chat forums, Kulczycki says.

Prior to the launch of the E-dition, the Joint Commission will release its new 2009 standards for ambulatory care, office-based surgery, and hospital programs (amongst other programs) via portable document format (PDF) in July 2008 and will make the PDF available on the Joint Commission’s Web site.

The PDFs will include five new chapters for ambulatory programs, not representing new standards but rather different organization of current standards into more defined groupings, and a crosswalk to assist customers with the transition to all 2009 standards, Kulczycki says. The new chapters will also assist customers in determining applicability. For example, if an ASC does not perform any tissue transplants, then the new chapter on “tissue transplant safety” can just be skipped in preparing for accreditation.

The PDFs will remain posted on the Joint Commission Web site until October 2008 when the print manuals are published.

For more information about the Joint Commission, click here.