Joint Commission Resources, a unit of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, disclosed on its Web site this week that it found a flaw in the software it sold to more than 1,000 hospitals, which use the program to assist them in qualifying for JCAHO accreditation. The flawed software was mission an identification marker needed to alert hospitals to 250 of the 1,300 standards they must meet to be JCAHO compliant. A spokesperson for JCAHO called the problem a "production glitch" and said the minor problem would be fixed immediately. A hospital spokesman, however, described the problem as an "earthquake" and said hospitals may have lost quality-control data entered into their systems. The software costs larger hospitals several thousand dollars per year and smaller ones up to $1,095 annually.