What will JCAHO’s National Patient Safety Goals inspire you to do?
As healthcare reform continues to be debated, the role of health information technology continues to evolve alongside it. Hospitals are expected, now more than ever, to meet a growing list of requirements and hot button issues including compliance with various regulatory organizations and federal legislation such as HIPAA, Medicare and Medicaid; and the creation of comprehensive electronic medical records (EMR) and legal health records (LHR). Above all else, the objective on which every member of the health care community must place the most emphasis is increasing patient safety. Today’s healthcare providers are held more accountable and required to provide an environment that improves, and in no circumstance compromises, patients’ health. This, of all mandates, is the one that should not be viewed as ‘policy’…for the dedicated healthcare institution; it is the inspiration for doing what it does.
To help the healthcare industry maintain focus, on January 1 the 2010 National Patient Goals went into effect. Issued by The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO or the Joint Commission), an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, the NPSGs were established to help accredited organizations address specific areas of concern in regards to patient safety. Half of the 2010 National Patient Safety Goals are directly applicable to healthcare organizations like yours, and those goals are as follows:
Goal 1 – Improve the accuracy of patient identification.
Goal 2 – Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.
Goal 3 – Improve the safety of using medications.
Goal 7 – Reduce the risk of health care–associated infections.
Goal 8 – Accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum
Goal 9 – Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls.
Goal 14 – Prevent health care–associated pressure ulcers
Goal 15 – The organization identifies safety risks inherent in its patient population.
Are these your organization’s goals? If so, how do you plan on achieving them? Dynamic works with healthcare providers every day to integrate RFID solutions that address several and sometimes all of JCAHO’s stated goals. We work hard to stay in front of industry issues and enlist technology partners that can help our customers address them head on – which is why we don’t feel like we need to ‘catch up’ to these goals each year. In fact, it feels a bit as though they’re catching up to us.
Tags: health care IT, health care RTLS, health IT, Health IT 2010, HEALTHCARE RTLS, hospital process improvement, improve patient care, patient safety, RFID, rfid for health care, RTLS, RTLS 2010
February 11th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
[...] how RFID can help healthcare providers meet the National Patient Safety Goals in our blog post, “What will JCAHO’s National Patient Safety Goals inspire you to do?” These Success Stories! further emphasize how RFID directly improves patient care by minimizing [...]