National Patient Safety Goals

The purpose of the National Patient Safety Goals are a specific way to focus on what are believed to be significant safety practices that have been identified by The Joint Commission as ways to improve on the care and safety of patients. These safety practices have established an approach to medical care that is now implemented by nurses and health care facilities nationwide. The use of two patient identifiers to verify that the correct medicine and/or treatment is being given to the correct patient is the first National Patient Safety Goal of 2016. In an acute care setting, nurses implement this during medication administration by scanning patient identification bracelets and confirming the patient’s name and date of birth verbally.