The Joint Commission revises PI requirement for preop, postop diagnoses discrepancies

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission on March 1 announced a revision to Performance Improvement (PI) standard PI:01.01.01, Element of Performance (EP) 4, which has to do with data collection on significant discrepancies between preoperative and postoperative diagnoses. The revision was made after healthcare organizations expressed confusion with the requirement.

The revision:

• provides details and examples clarifying the intent of the requirement and how the data can be used in performance improvement efforts for diagnostic errors.
• clarifies that medical staff determine which unexpected postoperative diagnoses are clinically significant.

The revision is going into effect immediately for hospitals, critical access hospitals, ambulatory care, and office based surgery practices.