Joint Commission offers Advanced Certification for Spine Surgery

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission on February 24 announced that it will be offering an Advanced Certification for Spine Surgery (ACSS) in collaboration with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

The new program will be available in July to hospitals, critical access hospitals, and ambulatory surgery centers that perform spine procedures, including those accredited by the Joint Commission or other accrediting organizations, or those that are nonaccredited.

The Joint Commission adopted four standardized measures from the American Spine Registry. Data collection for these measures must begin 4 months before the initial certification review. After that, data collection in ongoing.

The measures are:

• ACSS-01: Surgical site infection rates
•  ACSS-02: New neurological deficits
•  ACSS-03: Unplanned return visit to the OR
•  ACSS-04: Preoperative and postoperative patient reported outcomes.

More information about the measures will come later, the Joint Commission says.