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OAKBROOK TERRACE, Illinois – August 15, 2016) The Joint Commission released a new “R³ Report” today on the neweating disorders standards for Behavioral Health Care Accreditation. The standards were released in January 2016 for residential and outpatient eating disorders programs. The new report provides a more in-depth rationale and evidence for the standards beyond what is in the accreditation manual.

The new Joint Commission standards were developed at the request of the field and were designed to improve the process for the care and treatment of individuals who are served by residential and outpatient eating disorders programs and who require both behavioral and physical health care, treatment, and services.

“Individuals with eating disorders can be very fragile, and eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any behavioral health disorder. This makes it very important that these programs provide the safest, highest quality care possible,” said David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, Executive Vice President, Division of Health Care Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission. ”With the new standards and the deeper knowledge provided in this report, we aim to provide Joint Commission accredited organizations with the tools they need to improve care and treatment for these individuals.”

The R³ Report provides details and references on the research undertaken to develop the standards and the reference sources including practice guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association, practice parameters published in theJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and published research on the early recognition and medical risk management of eating disorders.

The report also provides details on the stakeholders, customers and experts that were engaged in the process to develop and vet the new standards. In addition to the required vetting of the proposed requirements with The Joint Commission’s expert technical advisory and approval committees, experts involved in the process included accredited behavioral health care organizations with eating disorders programs, the standards were pilot tested at an accredited eating disorders program and key experts met with the standards development team.
The R³ Report may be viewed here. It may be reproduced only in its entirety and credited to The Joint Commission.