The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum are aligning their serious safety event reporting frameworks in an effort to reduce redundancy and ease the administrative burden on healthcare providers.
Effective Jan. 1, 2027, The Joint Commission will adopt the NQF’s Serious Reportable Events, or SRE List, across all accredited domestic and international organizations, according to a Jan. 26 news release from the organizations. Three workplace safety events — homicide, sexual abuse or assault, and physical assault of staff — will be retained as part of the revised SRE list.
Leaders of both organizations said consolidating around the NQF list will simplify reporting for clinicians and hospitals while providing a more consistent, standardized framework for measuring and tracking patient safety events across states and health systems.
The Joint Commission said it will offer technical support during the transition to help accredited organizations prepare.
“This marks a significant step toward simplifying safety event reporting for clinicians, hospitals, and health systems worldwide, reducing duplicative reporting tasks and allowing them to focus more on making care safer,” Jonathan Perlin, MD, PhD, president and CEO of The Joint Commission, said in the statement. “Establishing a common standard for measuring and tracking patient safety events will not only reduce reporting burden, it also will enhance the quality and completeness of safety event data. With a clearer, more comprehensive picture of these events, healthcare organizations globally can direct their improvement efforts where they are needed most, making care safer and more effective for every patient.”
The change stems from The Joint Commission’s 2023 affiliation with the NQF. Under the agreement, the organizations pledged to reduce the reporting burden tied to competing quality measures by aligning around common frameworks.
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