According to Sixteenth Street President and CEO John Bartkowski, DrPH, earning Joint Commission accreditation not only recognizes that an organization maintains clinical excellence through adherence to the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals, but it defines quality improvement and state-of-the-art performance standards for agency leadership, information management, environment of care, human resources as well as other agency operations.

“Every staff member and every department deserve credit for this designation,” Bartkowski said.  “We voluntarily sought this accreditation and we are proud to have had an independent evaluation confirm that our patient care, facilities, programs and services merit The Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval.”

Anyone can visit The Joint Commission’s Quality Check website and search by city, state and zip code for information about organizations that have received accreditation.

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission 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 nearly 1,200 free standing ambulatory care organizations.  The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-settingand accrediting body in health care.