Challenging Joint Commission

I had some fun in a recent thread with the results of a Joint Commission (JC) survey that allegedly showed the need for a staff member to act as a door so psych patients couldn't use community room chairs as ligature points. The situation is based in factual events and the response by allnurses' members was pretty much 100%: "That's dumb!"

Here's a link: https://allnurses.com/joint-commission-ligature-points-t699929/

Over 25 years ago, I was the nursing supervisor of a home health agency. We had been awarded JC's certification the year before and were up for a review. I don't recall the particulars, but when one surveyor proclaimed a need for a certain safety measure, I informed the surveyor that a P&P was already in place that covered that area of concern. The surveyor looked at me as if I had responded to her proclamation with a passing of odorous flatulence.

The administrator was present and basically assured the surveyor that a new P&P would be generated to cover that specific area of concern. The administrator then genuflected to the JC surveyor, kissed her ring, and the survey went on with good results. As I said, I don't recall the particulars, but it was inferred to me that JC is not to be challenged. When JC says, "Jump!", you do so.

I learned tonight from an administrator that the JC surveyors who proclaimed the need for staff acting as doors until locking doors on the community room can be installed were not prepared to survey a psych center. The administrator informed me that the surveyors were expecting to survey a 25 bed unit. Our medical center's psych division units total about 100 beds.

According to this administrator, "They went by the book", which meant the surveyors weren't prepared for, didn't know, or didn't have experience in dealing with such a large population, so they must have resorted to interpreting some documented guidelines.

If the surveyors were not prepared or experienced, why were they allowed to enforce seemingly ridiculous recommendations?

Has anyone ever challenged JC's recommendations, or are their decisions the be-all and end-all?

I did a little research, putting "Joint Commission challenged" in my search engine and generally came up with articles on some of the greatest challenges by JC. Except for one article by KevinMD, "Four Problems with the Joint Commission" which is a pretty good read, and this part stood out to me:

" When the Joint Commission reviews a hospital, the most critical component is an actual visit where members of the organization go to the hospital for around five days and observe the care provided firsthand. This sounds great— until you learn that their visit hours are about 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Isn’t that odd? It’s hard for me to believe an organization truly cares about patient safety when none of their crucial observations are done during some of the most critical hours."

Here's a link: https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2017/11/4-problems-joint-commission.html

So- do you know of any body or place that has challenged JC?