Copyright

Copyright © 2015 Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

All materials posted on this site are subject to copyrights owned by the Joint Commission ("the Joint Commission"). The Joint Commission hereby provides limited permission for the user of this site to reproduce, retransmit, or reprint for such user's own personal use (and for such personal use only) part or all of any document on this site as long as the copyright notice and permission notice contained in such document or portion thereof is included in such reproduction, retransmission, or reprinting. All other reproduction, retransmission, or reprinting of all or part of any document found on this site is expressly prohibited, unless the Joint Commission has expressly granted its prior written consent to so reproduce, retransmit, or reprint the material. All other rights reserved. See Permissions/Reprints Policy.

Disclaimers

The Joint Commission is providing information and services on the Internet as a benefit and service in furtherance of the Joint Commission's mission. The Joint Commission makes no representations about the suitability of this information and these services for any purpose.

Although this site includes links providing direct access to other Internet sites, the Joint Commission has not participated in their development and does not monitor or exert any editorial control over these sites. Further, any such linkages do not constitute any Joint Commission endorsement of products and services appearing on other websites.

Joint Commission Funding
The Joint Commission is a not-for-profit organization exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.  Accreditation survey and Certification review fees account for the largest portion of the Joint Commission's total revenue.

Joint Commission Website Advertising
The Joint Commission does not accept advertising on its website. 

Privacy Policy

The Joint Commission has prepared this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. This online privacy policy explains how and what The Joint Commission collects, uses and safeguards as to information obtained through our website.  This website Privacy Policy only pertains to information collected by The Joint Commission through this website.

We will not share personal information gathered on this site with third parties except in limited circumstances as identified below.

We detect and use the IP address of visitors to the site in order to assist us with diagnosing and solving problems with our server and to assist with the administration of our website.

Changes to the Website Privacy Policy

As the website may change from time to time, this Privacy Policy is expected the change as well.  The Joint Commission reserves the right to change this policy at any time for any reason.  We will post a notice that this Privacy Policy has been amended by revising the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this page.

If you have any questions about this policy please send us an email or contact us form.

Web Cookies
The Joint Commission uses cookies for site navigation only. "Cookies" are bits of text data sent from a Web server to a user's computer to be retrieved later for purposes of identification. The Center only uses temporary cookies, which are deleted at the end of each user session. Many consider the use of cookies to be an industry standard. Consequently, your Web browser is probably set to accept cookies. If you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to do so, however, you should understand that it is possible that some areas of our site will not function properly when you view them. Unless otherwise specified, no additional information will be collected from or about you through the use of cookies.

We collect this information for statistical purposes and to make our site more useful to visitors.  The Joint Commission does not collect personal information about individual visitors.  The Joint Commission does not supply personal or financial information about individual visitors to third parties.  The Joint Commission uses cookies to maintain web session information to assist in site navigation.  The web session cookies are deleted when the web session ends.  Unless specifically stated otherwise, no additional information will be collected from you.

We detect and use the IP address of visitors to the site in order to assist us with diagnosing and solving problems with our server and to assist with the administration of our Web site.

Personal Information
When you browse through any website, certain information about you can be collected. Unless you input additional information, by browsing www.jointcommission.org,  The Joint Commission does not collect any personal information other than the information as identified below.  The Joint Commission automatically collects and temporarily stores the following information about your visit:

• Your email address will be collected, used and retained. In the interests of privacy, however, this information will not be shared with other users.
• The name of the domain you use to access the Internet.  (For example, yahoo.com if you are using a Yahoo Online account.)
• The date, time and length of your visit.
• The pages you visited.
• The address of the Web site you came from when you came to visit. 

In the course of site operation, personal information collected may be stored and processed in the United States. The Joint Commission may collect, hold, and use, directly or through its affiliates, contractors, successors, assigns, and agents, the personally identifiable information you submit through the site. The Joint Commission may share personal information with its affiliates Joint Commission resources or the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare in order to provide them an opportunity to offer products or services that may be of interest to you. 

The Joint Commission may monitor, edit, or disclose your personal information, if required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process or governmental request (such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order). All data collected by or on behalf of The Joint Commission relating any use of the site or its content by any users is and shall remain at all times the sole property of The Joint Commission.

We may use the information you provide in a de-identified format as to both individual and organization, for research, quality improvement, or benchmarking purposes, and may provide this information in the aggregate to third parties. For example we might inform other users regarding the number of users to the Web site.

We may contract with other companies or individuals to help us provide services, such as development or maintenance of the site. We require others to comply with the Privacy Policy and limit their access to only the information that is necessary to accomplish the task at hand and nothing more.

Unless otherwise specified above, your personal information will not be provided to any third parties.

E-mail addresses
Individuals who register for use of any specific area on the site should refer to the specific privacy policy applicable to that area.  All users are required to provide their e-mail addresses. These e-mail addresses are also used to provide users with updates related to the site. The e-mail addresses collected during the registration process will not be sold, rented, or lent to a third party for any other purpose. E-mailed updates may contain advertising, and such advertising may be "targeted" based on demographic information, e-mail domains, or zip codes. Such targeting is done through processes internal to The Joint Commission and information from registration is not made available to advertisers or anyone else outside The Joint Commission.

The specific areas where information is captured:

• E-mail alerts/Newsletters and Journals:
  You can sign up to receive e-mail alerts, newsletters or journals.  We capture and retain name, organization and e-mail address to provide the information specifically requested by the user.
• Public Comment on Standards/Measures
  Periodically, The Joint Commission seeks public comment on draft standards, performance measures or other matters.  This is usually accomplished through the use of an electronic survey tool.  In order to validate the comment, The Joint Commission requests some demographic information in the survey.  Completion of this section is optional to the user.  Should you submit the requested demographic information this information will be retained until no longer necessary for the purpose of the study.
• User names and passwords
  Each individual who registers to use the Joint Commission Connect will have a user name and password. Passwords are the private property of the user. For reasons of security and privacy, as a user, you are responsible for not sharing your user name and password. For additional information about Joint Commission Connect see Log in Help.
• Blogs/News and Discussion Boards
  If you sign-up to participate on blogs and discussion boards, we capture name and e-mail address to allow posting of comments to the website.
• Speakers Bureau Form
  By completing the electronic form to retain a Joint Commission speaker, you provide name, e-mail address, city, state, zip and phone.  This information is captured and retained for securing Joint Commission Speakers.
• Events/Podcasts/Audio-conferences
  If you chose to sign-up for any event, podcast or audio-conference, we will capture and retain the name and e-mail address for registration.
• Business Development
  If you complete the registration form requesting additional information about an accreditation or certification program, we capture and retain the name of the individual, the organization, the e-mail address and demographic data for the purpose of responding to your questions on accreditation and/or certification.  This information is not shared outside The Joint Commission and its affiliates to other third parties requesting such data.

Google Analytics
"Currently we are using Google Analytics to analyze the audience of the website and improve our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. For further information visit Google Analytics, 

Security Policy

This site has security policies and technology in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under Joint Commission control. This includes User Personal Information. We cannot however protect against User misuse, loss, or alteration of User's own information. Although The Joint Commission makes every reasonable attempt to secure your information, there is always some risk in transmitting information across the internet. We cannot guarantee that the personal information we collect will never be disclosed in some manner not consistent with this Privacy Policy. We also cannot protect against User misuse, loss, or alteration of any User editable content.

Linking to other sites

You should be aware that other internet sites that link to The Joint Commission site or to an e-mail may contain privacy provisions which differ from the provisions of this Website Privacy Policy.  To ensure your privacy is protected, we recommend that you review the privacy policies of any internet site you visit. 

Last Update January 1, 2015.