Do not breath a sigh of relief if your hospital has The Joint Commission Seal of Approval...as many of us in healthcare know, this accreditation standard represents 'the floor (or basement)' of performance, not the ceiling . Want to really know if your hospital is safe? Ask the doctors and nurses--privately and "off the record"--and you might get the truth. One key question to ask them:'Would you go here for your surgery ?' Selected excerpt : "The Wall Street Journal dug into Joint Commission inspection reports from 2014 through 2016. In 2014, about 350 hospitals with Joint Commission accreditation were in violation of Medicare requirements that year, and about a third of those facilities went on to have additional violations in 2014, 2015 and 2016. About 80% of U.S. hospitals are accredited by the commission." …see more