This report emphasizes performance on Hospitals in the United States have made significant improvements in quality of care over the past several years, according to the sixth annual Joint Commission report. This report emphasizes performance on accountability measures—quality metrics that are closely tied to patient outcomes—and cites exemplar hospitals across the country that have demonstrated outstanding performance on these metrics for patients undergoing surgery, and for patients hospitalized with myocardial infarctions, pneumonia, and asthma (in children). Beginning in 2012, The Joint Commission began to integrate performance expectations on accountability measures into their annual accreditation surveys, meaning that for the first time, hospitals must demonstrate high-quality performance in order to retain accreditation.