A JCI checklist is the 8th edition hospital standards turned into owners and evidence. Five International Patient Safety Goals, the patient-centred chapters, the management chapters and the participation requirements, each with a named owner and evidence a surveyor can see in the live record.
Start from the standards JCI will use
JCI's hospital standards are in their 8th edition, effective 1 January 2025, and cover academic medical center hospitals too.1 They are arranged in sections. The Accreditation Participation Requirements, the Patient-Centered Standards, the Health Care Organization Management Standards and a new Global Health Impact chapter, with two further chapters for academic medical centres.2
Surveyors evaluate more than a thousand measurable elements and look back six months for evidence.3 A checklist that lists chapters is too coarse. One that lists every element is too long to own. The working level is the chapter, with the elements underneath.
| Section | Chapters | What a surveyor checks |
|---|---|---|
| Patient-Centered Standards | IPSG, ACC, AOP, ASC, COP, MMU, PCC | Identity, consent, assessment, handover, medication and the patient's own experience |
| Organization Management | FMS, GLD, HCT, MOI, PCI, QPS, SQE | Governance, staff files, records, infection control, technology and quality data |
| Participation | APR, now scored | Accurate information to JCI and the conditions of accreditation |
| Global Health Impact | GHI, new | The organisation's wider impact, including sustainability |
- Buy the manual and the survey process guide. Use the 8th edition hospital manual, or your programme's own, and the guide that describes the survey agenda.
- Give each chapter one owner. A named leader who can produce and explain the evidence on the day.
- Score yourself element by element. Met, Partially Met or Not Met, the same way surveyors score, with the evidence written beside each.
- Point to the live record. For each element, name where the evidence lives today. The record, the rota, the minutes, the access log.
- Run mock tracers monthly. Pick a real patient and follow them from first enquiry to follow-up, as a surveyor would.
- Close the highest-risk gaps first. Rank gaps by likelihood to harm and how widespread they are, the logic of JCI's SAFER Matrix.
- Chapter ______ Owner ______
- Elements scored Met ______ Partially Met ______ Not Met ______
- Where the evidence lives ______
- Last mock tracer on ______ Patient traced ______
- Highest-risk gap ______ Fixed by ______
- What improved in the last six months ______
The goals no checklist can skip
The five International Patient Safety Goals are identify patients correctly, improve effective communication, improve the safety of medications, ensure safe surgery, and reduce the risk of health care-associated infections.4 They are where tracers start, and where a gap is most visible. Put them at the top of the checklist.
Questions
How many measurable elements does JCI survey?
More than a thousand, across the chapters of the standards, with a six-month look-back for evidence.
Is there an official JCI checklist?
JCI publishes the standards manual and a survey process guide. A checklist is your own working version of them, owned chapter by chapter.
Does the checklist differ for ambulatory care?
Yes, ambulatory centres use JCI's ambulatory care standards, in their 4th edition, effective 1 July 2019. Build the checklist from that manual instead.
Sources
- 1Joint Commission International, 2026Standards manuals, editions and effective datesRead source
- 2Joint Commission International, 2024JCI Accreditation Standards for Hospitals, 8th editionRead source
- 3Joint Commission International, 2026Accreditation processRead source
- 4Joint Commission International, 2026International Patient Safety GoalsRead source
- 5Joint Commission International, 2026The JCI SAFER MatrixRead source
Written by the wai team from Joint Commission International guidance, checked on 15 October 2026. This is guidance, not legal advice. JCI does not endorse wai or any software.