Achieving Advanced Readiness
How AcuityPlus Prepares Hospitals for The Joint Commission’s 2026 Nurse Staffing Goal
Overview
Use this quick self-assessment to evaluate your readiness for meeting The Joint Commission’s 2026 nurse staffing performance goal (goal 12). With it, you can uncover opportunities to strengthen staffing visibility, data integration, and quality measurement.
Self-Assessment
Instructions: Select Limited, Developing, or Advanced for each question below.
Overview
In 2026, The Joint Commission (TJC) will formally recognize nurse staffing as a national performance goal (NPG), emphasizing that safe, data-driven staffing is essential to patient outcomes, quality, and workforce well-being. Hospitals that proactively strengthen their staffing data infrastructure will be best positioned to demonstrate readiness and lead in care excellence.
AcuityPlus provides the data foundation, visibility, and interoperability needed to reach Advanced readiness.
This guide maps each self-assessment area of focus to how AcuityPlus helps hospitals achieve the “Advanced” stage of preparedness.
Achieve Advanced Preparedness With AcuityPlus
1. Governance & Leadership
Advanced Readiness: Clear governance structure, reporting lines, and accountability for staffing decisions are documented and actively used.
How AcuityPlus Helps:
- Provides real-time dashboards for nursing executives, showing staffing levels, skill mix, and patient acuity across units.
- Documents staffing decisions and adjustments, supporting transparent accountability and reporting.
- Alerts leadership to staffing gaps so they can take immediate action.
2. Staffing Plan and Skill Mix
Advanced Readiness: Comprehensive staffing plans cover all units; baseline ratios and acuity-based adjustments are used consistently; skill mix matches patient acuity and unit requirements.
How AcuityPlus Helps:
- Converts patient acuity and workload into actionable staffing recommendations.
- Integrates baseline nurse-to-patient ratios with real-time acuity data for accurate staffing.
- Ensures skill mix is aligned with unit-specific patient needs.
3. Patient Acuity and Workload Monitoring
Advanced Readiness: Daily acuity assessments are documented; staffing assignments are adjusted in real time; non-nursing workload factors are considered; trends are tracked.
How AcuityPlus Helps:
- Converts patient acuity and workload into actionable staffing recommendations.
- Integrates baseline nurse-to-patient ratios with real-time acuity data for accurate staffing.
- Ensures skill mix is aligned with unit-specific patient needs.
4. Staff Competency and Readiness
Advanced Readiness: Full competency matrix exists for all staff; ongoing high-acuity training and mentorship programs are in place; readiness is regularly evaluated.
How AcuityPlus Helps:
- Highlights units or shifts where staff skill mix may not match patient acuity.
- Supports competency planning by linking staff qualifications to acuity demands.
- Enables targeted mentorship or training interventions to maintain readiness.
5. Policies, Procedures and Escalation
Advanced Readiness: Written staffing policies are in place; escalation steps are clearly documented and followed whenever staffing cannot meet patient needs.
How AcuityPlus Helps:
- Tracks deviations from planned staffing and triggers escalation workflows.
- Documents adjustments made in response to acuity fluctuations or staffing shortages.
- Provides audit-ready records to demonstrate policy compliance during surveys.
6. Data Tracking and Continuous Improvement
Advanced Readiness: Staffing metrics are tracked daily and periodically reviewed; performance is benchmarked; data drives action plans to address gaps or trends.
How AcuityPlus Helps:
- Collects and aggregates staffing data in real time.
- Supports benchmarking against internal and external standards.
- Generates reports that link staffing to patient outcomes, enabling continuous improvement initiatives.
Why AcuityPlus?
AcuityPlus transforms staffing compliance into a continuous quality strategy. It connects real-time data, historical insights, forecasting and trends, and benchmarking to create measurable improvement in patient care and workforce balance.
Connect with us to learn more today.
