It's a slippery slope....

The Joint Commission issued press releases yesterday to announce its new initiative, the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. The concept is that the Joint Commission will play an active part in assembling key organizations to develop solutions to some of healthcare's toughest problems. One of the first initiatives is on hand hygiene. While the goal of this new center is laudable and the intent seems to be pure, what is concerning to me is that this project has corporate sponsors, at least some of whom would appear to have vested interests in the solutions that may be developed. Given the intense spotlight on conflict of interest currently, I'm surprised that TJC would allow corporate sponsorships.