The Growing Importance of Joint Commission Certification
Hip and knee replacements are among the most frequently performed surgeries in the US, and demand is rising each year. With increased volumes comes heightened competition, leaving hospitals under pressure to distinguish themselves with measurable proof of high-quality orthopedic care.
The Joint Commission’s Advanced Certification for Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement (THKR) has emerged as the gold standard for orthopedic programs. It signals to patients, payers, and referring providers that an organization is delivering care that is not only safe, but also evidence-based and consistent across the entire surgical journey. Certification validates that hospitals have built the processes, education, and data infrastructure needed to achieve exceptional outcomes.
But achieving advanced certification in joint replacement is not simply about surgical excellence; hospitals must demonstrate:
- Standardized patient education and preparation before surgery
- Robust outcomes collection and reporting, including submission to the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR)
- Continuity of care from pre-op through one-year follow-up
- Documented protocols and data that prove compliance during surveyor visits
These requirements are operationally demanding. Without the right infrastructure, they can place a significant burden on clinical teams already stretched thin.
Force Therapeutics: A Digital Partner in Accreditation
Force Therapeutics, a proud participant of the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Vendor Program, was purpose-built to relieve those pressures while elevating patient care. The Force Therapeutics patient engagement platform extends the reach of care teams across the entire episode of care and ensures hospitals can meet the Joint Commission’s prescriptive requirements with confidence.
With the Force Therapeutics patient engagement platform, hospitals can:
- Deliver standardized digital patient education through joint classes, exercise videos, and care instructions that prepare patients for surgery while allowing for personalization based on comorbidities or recovery needs.
- Automate patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) collection at key intervals before and after surgery, ensuring hospitals achieve and sustain compliance with reporting thresholds.
- Seamlessly integrate with AJRR by capturing, formatting, and securely submitting Level III data according to AAOS standards.
- Maintain two-way communication and monitoring through secure messaging, alerts, and reminders that keep patients engaged and enable early intervention when issues arise.
By combining automation with hybrid patient engagement, Force streamlines the administrative lift of certification while reinforcing the hospital’s commitment to patient-centered care.
Smoothing the Surveyor Experience
For many hospitals, the most stressful step in the certification process is the on-site survey. Surveyors expect to see not just policies but active evidence of education, monitoring, and standardized care delivery. Force Therapeutics prepares hospitals to demonstrate this clearly and easily and is a go-to digital tool for Joint Commission survey readiness.
Care teams can prepare surveyors with digital binders of education content, care timelines, and exercise protocols drawn directly from the patient engagement platform. They can showcase dashboards that highlight compliance rates, pain scores, and real-time outcomes data. And they can illustrate follow-up through records of patient check-ins, alerts, and messaging.
This level of transparency reassures surveyors that protocols are not theoretical; they are embedded into everyday workflows and consistently applied across the continuum of care.
Extending Impact Across the Care Continuum
Force Therapeutics’ value extends well beyond accreditation day. The platform enhances care delivery from the first patient touchpoint throughout long-term follow-up.
- Pre-op: Patients complete PROMs and access digital education materials that improve preparedness. Automated reminders increase compliance and reduce the risk of missing data needed for Joint Commission orthopedic certification.
- Day of surgery through discharge: Tools like the Risk Assessment and Prediction Tool (RAPT) form support discharge planning for hip and knee replacements and help more patients return directly home, a key focus of certification. Additionally, gold-standard pre-op education ensures a seamless patient experience on surgery day, reducing cancellations and rescheduling.
- Post-op recovery: Patients receive structured reminders to complete PROMs and outcomes surveys at 12 weeks, 6 months, and one year. Video-based rehab content, combined with real-time provider monitoring, helps patients stay on track and allows teams to intervene proactively if needed.
By aligning the patient experience with certification requirements, Force Therapeutics ensures hospitals can sustain high performance long after the surveyor visit is complete.
Proven Outcomes from Force Clients
Hospitals using the Force Therapeutics patient engagement platform consistently outperform national benchmarks and see measurable improvements that align directly with Joint Commission standards.
Across various hospital types, Force has delivered high PROMs collection rates in orthopedics averaging 89%; reduced readmission rates driven by better patient education and proactive monitoring; reduced length of stay for joint replacements reflecting improved discharge readiness and smoother recovery; 97% of patients discharged home, lowering costly reliance on post-acute care (PAC) resources; and substantial time savings for care teams enabled by automation and streamlined workflows.
These results not only prepare hospitals for accreditation but also translate into stronger patient outcomes, improved operational efficiency, and measurable financial benefits.
Building a Sustainable Model for Quality
Joint Commission certification is more than a recognition of compliance. It reflects a hospital’s commitment to building a sustainable center of excellence for high-quality, patient-centered care. Sustaining that gold standard requires infrastructure, not just manual effort.
Force Therapeutics provides that infrastructure. By automating outcomes reporting, integrating directly with AJRR, and standardizing patient engagement across the surgical journey, Force enables hospitals to not only achieve certification but to maintain excellence year after year. Clinical teams gain time back for direct patient care, administrators gain reliable data to demonstrate quality, and patients gain confidence that their hospital is fully invested in their recovery.
For hospitals navigating the path to Joint Commission Advanced Certification, Force Therapeutics offers both the technology for advanced orthopedic certification and the clinical partnership to succeed, turning hospital accreditation requirements from a challenge into a catalyst for better outcomes and stronger programs.
Learn how Force Therapeutics helps hospitals achieve Joint Commission certification for hip and knee replacement:
