The Joint Commission makes nurse staffing a national performance goal for 2026

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission has made nurse staffing a national benchmark for hospital accreditation, formally recognizing it as a core measure of patient safety and care quality, Nurse.org October 13 reports. For the first time, hospitals must meet specific staffing standards to earn or maintain accreditation.

Under the new 2026 National Performance Goal 12, hospitals are required to ensure staffing levels and staff competencies align with patient needs. The standard establishes clear accountability for nursing leadership, with requirement 12.02.01 designating the nurse executive as the key authority over nurse staffing. Element of Performance 5 further mandates that hospitals maintain “an adequate number of licensed registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other staff” to deliver necessary care.

The article describes this move as a major departure from previous approaches that viewed staffing largely as an operational or budgetary matter. By elevating it to a National Performance Goal, The Joint Commission affirms what nurses have long maintained: adequate staffing is fundamental to patient safety and must be governed by measurable, enforceable standards.

The timing is critical. Nurse turnover and vacancy rates have surged in recent years, with the 2022 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report citing a 27.1% hospital RN turnover rate in 2021 and 73% of hospitals reporting increased vacancies. The pandemic further magnified the risks of understaffing, drawing attention to the relationship between staffing ratios and adverse outcomes.

Implementation begins in 2026 as part of The Joint Commission’s “Accreditation 360” overhaul, which simplifies some administrative processes while tightening oversight of workforce adequacy. Hospitals must now document staffing plans, leadership qualifications, and department-level supervision across all service areas, including surgical, emergency, and outpatient care. The new standards also require 24/7 RN oversight and annual evaluation of staffing sufficiency as part of patient safety reviews.

Hospitals will need to adopt data-driven staffing models, ensure nurse executives hold advanced credentials, and integrate staffing metrics into organizational performance reporting. As the article notes, facilities that fall short could face accreditation challenges or reimbursement risks.