Doxiverse Staff, August 2026
Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH), a New Jersey health network the company describes as the state's largest, announced on July 29 that it has become the first health system in the country to earn the Joint Commission's Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare (RUAIH) Certification, a voluntary program the accrediting body launched in June 2026.
Why it matters: With no finalized federal framework governing how hospitals should oversee AI tools, this gives other health systems a concrete, third-party-reviewed template for what a national "responsible AI" certification actually requires and a real-world example of what one large system's AI governance structure looks like in practice.
What Happened
The Joint Commission, an independent nonprofit that accredits U.S. healthcare organizations, evaluated HMH across six domains as part of the RUAIH certification, according to HMH's own announcement:
- Governance and oversight for the responsible use of AI
- Safeguards to protect patient privacy and healthcare data
- Processes to identify, assess, and reduce risks and bias in AI tools
- Monitoring processes to help ensure AI tools perform safely and effectively
- Transparency and education to help patients understand how AI may be used in their care
- Staff training to support the safe, responsible use of AI technologies
HMH said the certification reflects an existing formal AI governance structure at the health network, combining data security and privacy protections with ongoing evaluation and monitoring of AI tools, plus role-specific AI training and general AI literacy education for staff and providers. Per reporting from Healthcare Dive, the certification builds on a 2025 strategic partnership between the Joint Commission and the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), a standards organization, aimed at developing guidance for safe AI implementation in health systems.
HMH CEO Robert C. Garrett said in the announcement that the health network is "committed to integrating AI responsibly and safely across our health network to advance the way we deliver care," and said AI "has the potential to help clinicians detect diseases earlier, personalize treatment for every patient, improve the efficiency of our hospitals, and reduce administrative work that contributes to burnout." Joel Klein, HMH's executive vice president and chief digital and information officer, said the goal is to "empower our clinicians with better tools while preserving the trust and personal connections that remain at the heart of every patient experience." Ken Grubbs, the Joint Commission's chief nursing executive and executive vice president of Accreditation and Certification Operations, said in a statement that AI adoption "must be guided by strong governance, rigorous oversight, and an unwavering focus on patient safety."
What This Means for Hospitals and Health Systems
For hospital administrators and health-system leaders building or formalizing their own AI governance programs, HMH's certification offers a specific, six-domain checklist, issued by an accrediting body most U.S. hospitals already work with that can serve as a starting reference point, independent of any single vendor's framework.
The timing may also matter. Healthcare Dive, citing a March 2026 American Medical Association survey, reported that more than 80% of physicians now use AI professionally, while a Wolters Kluwer report found only 27% of clinicians say they understand how their own organization is addressing AI governance. If accurate, that gap between AI adoption and staff understanding of governance is precisely what a certification like RUAIH is designed to help close giving hospital leaders a possible model for closing it internally, whether or not they pursue certification themselves.
What's Still Unsettled
- This is a governance and process certification, not a clinical-outcomes claim. It does not independently verify the accuracy, safety, or effectiveness of any specific AI tool HMH uses in patient care, it certifies that HMH has structures in place to oversee those tools.
- The certification program itself is brand new. The Joint Commission launched RUAIH in June 2026, per Healthcare Dive's reporting, which means there is not yet a track record of how the certification holds up over time, how frequently it's renewed, or how many other health systems have applied or been denied.
- We could not independently verify HMH's "18 hospitals, 500+ locations" scale claim against Joint Commission or HMH primary materials beyond secondary reporting (NJBIA); readers should treat this figure as HMH's own characterization of its footprint.
- The AMA and Wolters Kluwer statistics cited above come to us secondhand, via Healthcare Dive's reporting rather than the original AMA survey or Wolters Kluwer report we were not able to locate and verify those primary documents directly.
- It's not yet clear whether other major health systems are currently pursuing the same certification, or how the Joint Commission plans to handle recertification or ongoing monitoring after initial approval.
Sources
- Hackensack Meridian Health, press release, July 29, 2026: "Hackensack Meridian Health Becomes First Health System in the Country to Earn Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare Certification from Joint Commission" (primary source). https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/news/2026/07/29/hmh-becomes-first-health-system-to-earn-responsible-use-of-ai-in-healthcare