Hackensack Meridian Health Becomes First US Health System to Earn Joint Commission's Responsible AI Certification
The New Jersey health network is the first in the country to earn the Joint Commission's Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare Certification, covering governance, privacy and staff training.
Overview
Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) has become the first health system in the United States to earn the Joint Commission’s Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare (RUAIH) Certification, according to Hackensack Meridian Health and independently confirmed by Healthcare Dive and Healthcare Innovation. The New Jersey network describes itself as the state’s largest and most comprehensive health system, according to Hackensack Meridian Health.
What We Know
The Joint Commission, an independent accreditation organization, launched the certification in June, with the goal of endorsing U.S. healthcare organizations that can demonstrate proper governance, resources, policies and training programs for the safe and effective use of AI, according to Healthcare Dive. The certification builds on a partnership the Joint Commission formed with the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) in 2025 to develop AI best practices and guidance for the healthcare industry, as reported by Healthcare Dive and Healthcare Innovation.
According to Hackensack Meridian Health, the Joint Commission evaluated HMH across core domains including governance and oversight for the responsible use of AI, safeguards to protect patient privacy and healthcare data, processes to identify and reduce risk and bias in AI tools, monitoring processes to ensure AI tools perform safely and effectively, transparency and education for patients, and staff training on the safe use of AI technologies.
For HMH, the certification process itself took just three weeks, though the system’s internal governance framework for responsible AI has been in use for four years, according to Healthcare Dive. The health system has rolled out AI across its 18 hospitals and hundreds of care sites, including AI chatbot assistants on provider websites, predictive analytics aimed at improving hospice transitions, and models that can detect heart disease, Healthcare Dive reported.
“At Hackensack Meridian Health, we are committed to integrating AI responsibly and safely across our health network to advance the way we deliver care,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, according to Hackensack Meridian Health. “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. Most importantly, it enables physicians, nurses and team members to spend more time caring for patients.”
Joel Klein, M.D., executive vice president and chief digital and information officer at Hackensack Meridian Health, said “the promise of artificial intelligence is not to replace the human side of medicine, but to strengthen it,” and that the network is “empowering our clinicians with better tools while preserving the trust and personal connections that remain at the heart of every patient experience,” according to Hackensack Meridian Health.
Dr. Lauren Koniaris, HMH’s chief medical informatics officer, said, “As we expand our clinical AI initiatives, we operate under the utmost governance to ensure patient quality and safety are always the priority,” according to Healthcare Dive. She added that the system has “a dedicated team evaluating options — including screening tools from third-party vendors — with the specific goal of reducing administrative burdens so our clinicians can focus on patient care.”
Ken Grubbs, DNP, MBA, RN, chief nursing executive and executive vice president of Accreditation and Certification Operations at the Joint Commission, said organizations “must ensure the use of AI is guided by strong governance, rigorous oversight, and an unwavering focus on patient safety,” adding that the “Joint Commission commends HMH for demonstrating a responsible approach to AI adoption while advancing innovation in patient care,” according to Hackensack Meridian Health and independently confirmed with matching wording by Healthcare Innovation.
Brian Anderson, president and CEO of CHAI, called HMH’s certification an “exciting milestone, which marks a meaningful step toward making responsible AI governance a standard part of healthcare delivery,” according to Healthcare Dive. Healthcare Dive reported that many of CHAI’s health system members are preparing to pursue the same certification as it gains momentum.
The certification is voluntary and organizations pay for it based on company type and size, Healthcare Dive reported, describing it as covering five domains: governance, risk and bias reduction, effective data management, monitoring and validating safety and effectiveness, and education and training.
Adoption context cited by Healthcare Dive: more than 80% of physicians use AI professionally, according to a March survey from the American Medical Association — a rate that has more than doubled since 2023 — while just 27% of clinicians say they know how their organizations are addressing AI governance, according to a Wolters Kluwer report, as reported by Healthcare Dive.
What We Don’t Know
None of the three sources disclosed the specific cost HMH paid for the certification, the exact identities of the third-party AI screening vendors HMH is evaluating, or a timeline for other health systems to complete the same certification process.
Analysis
The certification arrives as healthcare AI adoption has outpaced formal governance structures at many institutions: Healthcare Dive’s cited AMA and Wolters Kluwer figures point to a gap between how many clinicians use AI tools day to day and how many understand how their own organizations oversee that use. A voluntary, paid, third-party certification gives health systems a way to publicly signal governance maturity to patients, regulators, and partners — and gives the Joint Commission and CHAI, which jointly developed the certification’s standards, a vehicle to push a shared governance framework across an industry where federal AI rules remain limited.