Completing the Circle: The Embodiment of Quality Across the Care Delivery Continuum

In the current environment of transparency, no-pay events, nurse-sensitive indicators, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Provider and Systems (HCAHPS), healthcare reform, and staffing effectiveness initiatives, accredited hospitals are directing more attention toward examining measures that lie within their span of control to ensure contracted staff meet quality standards equivalent to hospital staff. Hospitals can rest assured of credentialing and competency assessment among contracted healthcare staff retained through healthcare staffing service (HCSS) firms certified by The Joint Commission (TJC). The purpose of this article is to illuminate both the parallel and intersecting nature of the relationship between TJC standards for hospital accreditation and the criteria that must be satisfied with consistency by HCSS firms to earn and subsequently maintain TJC certification.