Patient safety goals stress communication
The 2004 Patient Safety Goals of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations include all of the 2003 goals along with a new goal that focuses on the reduction of the risk of health care-acquired infections.
The 2003 requirement that verbal and telephone orders must be read back to confirm their accuracy has been expanded to include the read back of critical test results that are communicated verbally. (For more information about the 2003 Patient Safety Goals, see Same-Day Surgery, Accreditation Update supplement, July 2003, p. 4; SDS, September 2002, p. 109.)
The 2004 National Patient Safety Goals and Requirements are:
• Goal 1: Improve the accuracy of patient identification.
— Use at least two patient identifiers (neither of which is the patient’s room number) whenever taking blood samples or administering medications or blood products.
— Prior to the start of any surgical or invasive procedure, conduct a final verification process, such as a timeout, to confirm the correct patient, procedure and site, using active — not passive — communication techniques.
• Goal 2: Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.
— Implement a process for taking verbal or telephone orders or critical test results that requires a verification "read back" of the complete order or test result by the person receiving the order or test result.
— Standardize the abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols used throughout the organization, including a list of abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols not to use.
• Goal 3: Improve the safety of using high-alert medications.
— Remove concentrated electrolytes (including, but not limited to, potassium chloride, potassium phosphate, sodium chloride > 0.9%) from patient care units.
— Standardize and limit the number of drug concentrations available in the organization.
• Goal 4: Eliminate wrong-site, wrong-patient, and wrong-procedure surgery.
— Create and use a preoperative verification process, such as a checklist, to confirm that appropriate documents (e.g., medical records, imaging studies) are available.
— Implement a process to mark the surgical site, and involve the patient in the marking process.
• Goal 5: Improve the safety of using infusion pumps.
— Ensure free-flow protection on all general-use and patient-controlled anesthesia intravenous infusion pumps used in the organization.
• Goal 6: Improve the effectiveness of clinical alarm systems.
— Implement regular preventive maintenance and testing of alarm systems.
— Ensure that alarms are activated with appropriate settings and are sufficiently audible with respect to distances and competing noise within the unit.
• Goal 7: Reduce the risk of health care-acquired infections.
— Comply with current hand hygiene guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
— Manage as sentinel events all identified cases of unanticipated death or major permanent loss of function associated with a health care-acquired infection.
[Editor’s note: This is the one of a series of periodic columns that address specific questions related to implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you have questions, please send them to Sheryl Jackson, Same-Day Surgery, American Health Consultants, P.O. Box 740056, Atlanta, GA 30374. Fax: (404) 262-5447. E-mail: [email protected].]
The 2004 Patient Safety Goals of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations include all of the 2003 goals along with a new goal that focuses on the reduction of the risk of health care-acquired infections.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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