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Joint commission issues patient safety goats for 2006

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (3CAH0) has issued the 2006 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) and related requirements for its accreditation programs, according to a May 31, 2005, news release from JCAHO. Compliance with the requirements or alternatives judged to be acceptable is a condition of continuing accreditation or certification for JCAHO-accredited or certified organizations and programs.

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Additions to the NPSGs for 2006 include a new requirement in all programs that "hand-offs" of patients between caregivers be standardized, with particular attention given to ensuring that caregivers have an opportunity to ask and respond to questions. This requirement is part of the goal "improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers." A new requirement for all types of accredited organizations that provide surgical or other invasive services specifies that all medications, medication containers, and other solutions used in perioperative settings are to be labeled. This requirement is part of the goal "improve the safety of using medications." New goals in other programs address the prevention of pressure ulcers and encourage the active involvement of patients and their family members in the patient's care as a patient safety strategy.

The following requirements will be retired for all applicable accreditation programs in 2006.

* The requirement to remove concentrated electrotytes, including but not Limited to potassium chloride, potassium phosphate, and sodium chloride greater than 0.9%, from patient care units will be eliminated, but this requirement will continue to exist in relevant accreditation manuals.

* The requirement to ensure free-flow protection on all generabuse and patient-controlled analgesia iv infusion pumps used in an organization will be eliminated. Compliance with this requirement has been greater than 99%, and equipment manufacturing and availability issues for all health care settings have been satisfactorily resolved.

The board of commissioners also affirmed the six existing "do-not-use" abbreviations that constitute a single requirement under the goat "improve the effectiveness of communications among caregivers," but acted to delete a related stipulation that each organization identify three additional organization-specific do-not-use abbreviations. Failure to substantially eliminate the use of do-not-use abbreviations in medication orders is one of the most frequent noncompliance findings during 3CAHO surveys. The full text of the 2006 goals and requirements is available on the JCAHO web site at http://wwwjcaho.org /accredited+organizations/patient+safety/npsg.htm.

Joint Commission Announces 2006 National Patient Safety Goals (news release, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Play 31, 2005) http://www.jcaho.org/news+room/news +release+archives/06_npsg.htm (accessed 6 dune 2005).

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Joint commission issues patient safety goats for 2006

AORN Journal, July, 2005

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