What the Joint Commission Standards Consolidation Means for Healthcare Facilities

What’s new with Joint Commission standards?

The Joint Commission recently unveiled Accreditation 360, its most comprehensive overhaul of hospital accreditation in decades. It is designed to reduce administrative burden, clarify expectations, and elevate performance standards. 

With 714 hospital accreditation requirements removed, a restructured manual, and a new focus on measurable outcomes, healthcare leaders must act now to align their facilities with the new paradigm. 

At Legacy FM, we’re committed to guiding you through this change so your compliance, safety, and operational effectiveness remain rock solid.

What is Accreditation 360?

On June 30, 2025, The Joint Commission announced its transformative new model: Accreditation 360: The New Standard. 

Key changes include the following:

• Removal of 714 hospital accreditation requirements (plus nearly 650 for critical access hospitals), building on the 400-requirement reduction from 2023 Joint Commission+1Environmental Health & EngineeringASHE.
• A simplified accreditation manual that clearly flags Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoPs), while grouping remaining standards into a new National Performance Goals (NPG) chapter Joint Commission+2Joint Commission+2Environmental Health & Engineering.
• An optional Continuous Engagement Model for ongoing support and perpetual survey readiness—instead of reactive, cyclical preparation Joint Commission+1.
• A new SAFEST (Survey Analysis For Evaluating STrengths) program to recognize and share leading practices among organizations Joint Commission+1.

Publicly searchable standards online starting July 2025, increasing transparency, Joint Commission+1. In short, Accreditation 360 shifts the approach from dense, overlapping standards to a streamlined, outcomes-based, and supportive system, which is better aligned with how care is delivered today.

Why It Matters for Healthcare Facilities

This overhaul has broad implications for hospitals and critical access facilities.

1. Fewer—but more meaningful—standards. Less clutter in the manuals, but greater clarity about what matters. With medical-speak replaced by clear, measurable goals, compliance is simpler to understand and train for Environmental Health & EngineeringASHE.
   
   
   
2. Structural changes in documentation. The historic Life Safety (LS) and Environment of Care (EC) chapters are merged into a new Physical Environment (PE) chapter. Combined, the number of Elements of Performance (EPs) shrank from approximately 464 total to just 63 in the PE and NPG chapters Environmental Health & EngineeringASHE.
   
   
   
3. Grace period on enforcement. The updated requirements take effect January 1, 2026, and The Joint Commission has emphasized understanding the learning curve—organizations won’t face citations for referencing old standards, provided they still meet the intent AHEEnvironmental Health & Engineering.
   
   
   

New tools for benchmarking. SAFER Matrix enhancements, peer comparison dashboards, and document upload capabilities streamline surveys and make performance insights more actionable Environmental Health & Engineering.

Legacy FM’s Perspective: Why You Need a Partner Now

At Legacy FM, we believe programs like Accreditation 360 aren’t just bureaucratic changes. They’re opportunities to strengthen facility culture, clarify responsibilities, and embed best practices.

• We interpret, so you don’t have to. Our team stays updated on all crosswalks and manual changes, so you can focus on operations—not decoding guidance.
  
  
• Training with intention. When the manual restructures significantly, default retraining can misfire. We tailor training to reflect the reorganization—even behind labels like PE, NPG, and CoPs.
  
  
• Proactive survey readiness. With Continuous Engagement available, our experts can help you transition from reactive prep to consistent, confident readiness.
  
  

Leverage leading practices. SAFEST isn’t just for recognition; we help operationalize high-performing strategies across your facility to improve care and ease future surveys.

Action Steps: Preparing for Accreditation 360

To ease the transition and protect your accreditation standing, consider the following key steps before January 1, 2026:

1. Use the crosswalks now. Compare old LS/EC standards with new PE and NPG structures. Legacy FM can guide customized crosswalks for your policies and manuals. (Joint Commission has already published crosswalk docs and updated SPGs as of July 25, 2025) Joint Commission.
   
   
2. Refresh training curricula. Update staff on new chapter titles, numbering, and requirement groupings—don’t just say “policy shifted,” demonstrate “this is where it lives now.”
   
   
3. Pilot Continuous Engagement. Consider enrolling early to benefit from ongoing guidance that reduces end-of-cycle scramble.
   
   
4. Benchmark your current standing. Use the SAFER Matrix and peer comparison tools to understand current risk areas before the audit.
   

Lean into transparency. Since the standards are now searchable, align your internal resources with published language to avoid confusion or mismatched expectations.

How Legacy FM Can Help You With the New Joint Commission Standards

Accreditation 360 isn’t a small tweak. It’s one of the most significant evolutions of the Joint Commission’s process since 1965. While the core focus remains on patient safety and quality, how those goals are framed and assessed is fundamentally changing. Your facility can turn this transition into an advantage, but only with proactive planning, precise interpretation, and skilled guidance.

Contact Legacy FM today to

• Evaluate your readiness for the new PE and NPG structures.
  
• Tailor staff training to mirror the new manual.
  
• Pilot Continuous Engagement for sustained compliance strength.
  
• Gain visibility, clarity, and confidence heading into 2026.
  

Let us help you leverage Accreditation 360 as a springboard to operational excellence, and not just navigate the transition, but thrive in it.