Joint Commission: Life Safety revisions for behavioral healthcare

The Joint Commission has revised its Life Safety standards LS.04.01.20 through LS.04.02.50 for its Behavioral Health Care Accreditation program. The changes apply to residential behavioral health care facilities and go into effect July 1, 2018. The revisions change the “residential occupancy” requirements so they align with the 2012 edition of the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 101: Life Safety Code®. 

The accreditor says these changes aren’t major, and they mostly address two things:

•    Updating the NFPA chapter references used in the elements of performance
•    Making it easier to discern between the requirements for existing and new buildings and for small and large organizations.

You can read the prepublication standards here.