The Board of Commissioners of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations announced recently its intent to begin conducting all regular accreditation surveys on an unannounced basis beginning in January 2006. Unannounced surveys will be pilot-tested in volunteer organizations during 2004 and 2005.

Joint Commission introduced a substantially new accreditation process in January 2004. These plans have been widely discussed with accredited health care organizations during the past year. The proposal to transition to unannounced surveys was a direct outgrowth of those discussions.

Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, is the first hospital in the ...