The Joint Commission has released its revised standards, rationales, and elements of performance for 2009.

The video of a woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the floor of an emergency room (ER) lobby was anonymously sent this week to the Los Angeles Times, which has posted the footage on its Web site. The newspaper received the video the same week another video was released showing a Brooklyn woman dying in and ER waiting room as staff and patients ignored her.

During a 10-month period beginning in July 2007, 466 patients in California developed pressure ulcers so severe that the dead skin formed a crater or rotted through to the muscle or bone, according to the Los Angeles Times.