Goals of the Joint Commission on National Patient Safety

The Joint Commission is a nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies more than 17,000 U.S. health-care facilities. The Joint Commission helps ensure patient safety in those health-care settings by holding organizations accountable for the care they give. The commission regularly assesses each organization's compliance with several hundred standards. One way they do this is through 16 set standards known as the National Patient Safety Goals.

Goals' Overview

• Nine types of health-care organizations have designated National Patient Safety Goals. Though there are a total of 16 goals, some apply only to certain types of facilities. Each goal has a main objective with one or more corresponding "elements of performance" that address specific areas involved with that particular goal.

Goals' Focus

• The National Patient Safety Goals focus on quality and patient safety. They require accurate patient identification; proper medication labeling and administration; regulation of certain high-risk treatments such as anticoagulant therapy; and overall communication among the health-care staff.

  Some specific goals include one that addresses the risk for patient falls and another aimed at preventing pressure ulcers in patients with limited or no mobility.

Medication

• One goal the Joint Commission has set for hospitals is making sure personnel find out what medicines each patient is using. The commission wants hospital workers to give a list of a patient's medicines to her next caregiver, her regular doctor and her family before she goes home.

Hand Hygiene

• A universal goal for all facilities is to reduce the risk of health care-associated infections. Facilities comply with this standard by enforcing hand hygiene and monitoring hand washing with soap or alcohol foam products.