Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) has become the first organization to earn the Joint Commission's certification for responsible artificial intelligence use in healthcare. The voluntary certification, launched in June, signals that the industry is moving to formalize AI governance as adoption outpaces federal regulation.
The Joint Commission, an independent accreditation organization, designed the certification to endorse U.S. healthcare organizations that can demonstrate proper governance, resources, policies and training for safe and effective AI use. HMH earned the seal after a three-week application process that tested its internal AI oversight mechanisms.
More than 80% of physicians now use AI professionally, according to a March survey from the American Medical Association - a rate that has more than doubled since 2023. Yet only 27% of clinicians say they know how their organizations handle AI governance, a Wolters Kluwer report found.
Industry standards emerge as federal rules lag
Private consortiums have been racing to establish industry standards as AI adoption accelerates. The certification process covers five domains: governance, risk and bias reduction, effective data management, monitoring and validating safety and effectiveness, and education and training.
The Joint Commission developed the certification using AI governance playbooks released in May by the Coalition for Health AI, a standards organization. CHAI's president and CEO, Brian Anderson, called HMH's certification an "exciting milestone, which marks a meaningful step toward making responsible AI governance a standard part of healthcare delivery." Many of CHAI's health system members are preparing to pursue the certification, Anderson added.
For healthcare professionals navigating these changes, understanding how their organizations govern AI is becoming a practical career concern, not just an abstract policy question. The gap between widespread clinical use and limited awareness of governance structures suggests a need for clearer communication from leadership - and for professionals to seek out that information themselves.
HMH's governance framework provides a blueprint
HMH's internal governance framework for responsible AI has been in use for four years, according to Dr. Lauren Koniaris, the organization's chief medical informatics officer. "As we expand our clinical AI initiatives, we operate under the utmost governance to ensure patient quality and safety are always the priority," she said.
The health system runs AI projects across its 18 hospitals and hundreds of care sites, from chatbot assistants on provider websites to predictive analytics for hospice transitions and models that detect heart disease. Koniaris said a dedicated team evaluates potential tools - including third-party vendor products - with the goal of reducing administrative burdens so clinicians can focus on patient care. Every tool is weighed against HMH's seven governance pillars before reaching a clinical setting.
Why this matters for healthcare professionals
The HMH certification gives healthcare workers a concrete benchmark to use when evaluating their own employer's AI practices. If your organization cannot articulate how it governs AI tools used in clinical or administrative workflows, that gap is now measurable against a published industry standard. The Joint Commission's framework - covering governance, bias reduction, data management, monitoring and training - provides a checklist for what responsible deployment looks like in practice, whether your hospital pursues formal certification or not.
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