Joint Commission- National Patient Safety Goals
Joint Commission- National Patient Safety Goals
Kathy Linkous
University of West Florida
Joint Commission- National Patient Safety Goals
The Joint Commission focuses on certain goals each year. For patient safety and positive outcomes, hospitals are required to follow certain standards. National Patient Safety Goals were established in 2002 to help identify areas of concern with patient safety. This group is made up by a panel of experts including nurses, doctors, pharmacists and many other healthcare professionals. They advise the Joint Commission on how to address these different patient safety issues. Two goals to be discussed are improving the accuracy of patient identification and medication safety. To improve patient identification use at least two patient identifiers. Joint Commission is also focusing on ways to make sure patient gets the correct blood for blood transfusions. Medication safety is focusing on communication, recording and passing along correct information about the patient’s medication before, during and after the hospital admission. ("The joint commission," 2014)
Joint Commission made patient identification number one on patient safety goals for 2014 because of how important it is to have the correct identity of every patient. Over the years there have been many areas of patient misidentification. Some near misses and some fatal. Misidentification can happen anywhere in a hospital setting and can include wrong drug administration, misidentification of blood or blood transfusion and wrong patients for surgical interventions. This is way it is so important that all departments in an organization use the same method for patient identification. Patient identification has been a problem for several reasons. One is communication, we assume way too much as a whole. Instead of communicating with the patient we assume it’s the right patient and continue with treatment, only later to find it was the wrong person. Another
Kathy Linkous
University of West Florida
Joint Commission- National Patient Safety Goals
The Joint Commission focuses on certain goals each year. For patient safety and positive outcomes, hospitals are required to follow certain standards. National Patient Safety Goals were established in 2002 to help identify areas of concern with patient safety. This group is made up by a panel of experts including nurses, doctors, pharmacists and many other healthcare professionals. They advise the Joint Commission on how to address these different patient safety issues. Two goals to be discussed are improving the accuracy of patient identification and medication safety. To improve patient identification use at least two patient identifiers. Joint Commission is also focusing on ways to make sure patient gets the correct blood for blood transfusions. Medication safety is focusing on communication, recording and passing along correct information about the patient’s medication before, during and after the hospital admission. ("The joint commission," 2014)
Joint Commission made patient identification number one on patient safety goals for 2014 because of how important it is to have the correct identity of every patient. Over the years there have been many areas of patient misidentification. Some near misses and some fatal. Misidentification can happen anywhere in a hospital setting and can include wrong drug administration, misidentification of blood or blood transfusion and wrong patients for surgical interventions. This is way it is so important that all departments in an organization use the same method for patient identification. Patient identification has been a problem for several reasons. One is communication, we assume way too much as a whole. Instead of communicating with the patient we assume it’s the right patient and continue with treatment, only later to find it was the wrong person. Another
References: The joint commission. (2014, January 03). Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/2014_national_patient_safety_goals_slide_presentation/ World Health Organization. (2007). Patient identification. Patient Safety Solutions, 1(2), Retrieved from http://www.who.int/patientsafety/solutions/patientsafety/PS-Solution2.pdf Radley, D., Wasserman, M., Olsho, L., Shoemaker, S., Spranca, M., & Bradshaw, B. (2013). Reduction in medications errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems. 10(1136), Retrieved from http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2013/01/27/amiajnl-2012-001241.full Finkelman, A., & Kenner, C. (2013). Professional nursing concepts: competencies for quality leadership. (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bart Learning.