National Patient Safety Goals
In July 2002, JCAHO announced its first-ever annual National Patient Safety Goals. These goals are revised annually and focus on practices that help to ensure quality safe care for our patients. Each goal below specifies one or more specific research based practices that have been shown to decrease errors and to create a safer care delivery environment for our patients. |
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| Improve accuracy of patient identification |
| Use at least two ways to identify a patient (neither to be the patient’s room number) before taking or giving blood or blood products, giving medications or
providing any other treatments or procedures.
| 94% | 97% | 100% | 88% | 100% |
| Improve effectiveness of communication among caregivers |
| Staff member who receives an order, verbally or via telephone, will "read-back" the orders to verify accuracy and completeness | 90% | 96% | 97% | 100% | 82% |
| Create and use a list of abbreviations, acronyms and symbols that are not to be used
throughout the organization.
| 98% | 99% | 73% | 97% | 91% |
| Improve the safety of using medications |
| Remove concentrated electrolytes (including, but not limited to, potassium chloride, potassium phosphate, sodium chloride > 0.9%) from patient care units | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Standardize and limit the number of drug concentrations | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Identify and, at a minimum, annually review a list of look-alike, sound-alike drugs used in the organization, and take action to prevent errors involving the interchange of these drugs | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Improve infusion pump safety |
| Ensure free flow protection on intravenous infusion pumps | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Reduce health care acquired infection |
| Comply with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) hand hygiene guidelines | 81% | 95% | 60% | 98% | 98% |
| Manage as sentinel events cases of unanticipated death or major permanent loss of function associated with health care-acquired infection | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum of care |
| During 2005, for full implementation by January 2006, develop a process for obtaining and documenting a complete list of the patient's current medications upon the patient's admission to the organization and with the involvement of the patient. | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
| A complete list of the patient's medication is communicated to the next provider of service when the patient is transferred to another setting, service, practitioner or level of care within or outside the organization | 100% | 100% | 58% | 100% | 100% |
| Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls |
| Assess patient's risk for falling, including as a result of medications that the patient is taking, and take appropriate actions to decrease risks | 87% | 86% | 83% | 84% | 86% |
