Essay On Patient Safety Goals

Preparing for The Joint Commission, Nightingale Community Hospital reviews areas of compliance and non-compliance. A periodic performance review, which is a self-evaluation, is utilized by Nightingale Community Hospital, to prepare for The Joint Commission. The Joint Commission has eighteen accreditation requirements. (Commission, 2013) The periodic performance review found the hospital to be compliant and non- compliant in the following areas:

In accordance with this the hospital makes sure we follow guidelines laid down by Joint commission Standards. The compliance includes four areas…Information management, Infection control, Communication and Medication Management. The Goal here is patient safety and providing patients with safe and effective care of the highest quality and value.

Eventually, the minimum standards evolved and began to encompass physical safety, equipment and administrative standards. Survey teams started to branch out across the nation in an attempt to keep up with the increased demand for accreditation. As a result, the American College of Physicians, the AMA, and the Canadian Medical Association joined the ACS to form an independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals in

The Joint Commission focuses on certain goals each year. For patient safety and positive outcomes, hospitals are required to follow certain standards. National Patient Safety Goals were established in 2002 to help identify areas of concern with patient safety. This group is made up by a panel of experts including nurses, doctors, pharmacists and many other healthcare professionals. They advise the Joint Commission on how to address these different patient safety issues. Two goals to be discussed are improving the accuracy of patient identification and medication safety. To improve patient

As shown, communication is a critical to hospital’s patient safety. The Joint Commission is a regulatory agency that makes hospital think about

The Joint Commission is scheduled to visit Nightingale Community Hospital for its triennial accreditation survey within the next 13 months. The purpose of this document is to provide senior leadership with an outline of the hospital’s current compliance status in the Priority Focus Area of Communication. Recommendations for corrective action are included in this document which are designed to bring the organization into full compliance in the areas where deficits have been identified.

"To continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value” (Jointcommission.org, 2015). These requirements are regimented in the National Patient Safety Goals and are enforced via surveys and internal inspections to ensure that healthcare institutions abide by the safety mechanisms put in place to facilitate the optimal patient outcomes and environments.

The Joint Commission defines the Periodic Performance Review as an assessment tool created to assist health organizations improve and monitor their performance throughout the year. This tool focuses on the processes that influence patient care and safety while providing the structure for unremitting standards fulfillment. Nightingale Community Hospital is compliant with most standards as set forth by the Joint Commission. However, upon inspection and in an effort to stay focused on compliance, our standards committee has located a few discrepancies that must be resolved to maintain our accreditation with the Joint Commission.

The National Patient Safety Goals were first developed in 2002 by the Joint Commission. The goals are established to help guide medical organizations to focus on which areas of patient safety need improving (Hudson 2016). The first set of goals were released and put in motion in 2003, prior to 2003 there were no policies or goals for an organization to set their sights on (Hudson 2016 page 2). A panel of experts advises the Joint Commission on the development of new goals or the updating of old ones. The panel is called the Patient Safety Advisory Group and is made up of nurses, risk managers, clinical engineers, and physicians (Hudson 2016). The National Patient Safety Goals have specific goals geared toward the type of medical organizations such as a critical access hospital, home care, behavioral health, and long term care services to name a few (Hudson 2016 page 2). The National Patient Safety Goals help protect patients and make sure providers are practicing safely across the board.

The Department of Health and Human Services currently are the seven national accreditation organizations that offer accreditation programs that are recognized for purposes of certifying the compliance of almost 7,000 hospitals, critical access hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, home health agencies, and hospices with Medicare health and safety standards (Lanham, 2013). These accredited health care facilities as having satisfied the health and safety standards

healthcare organization accrediting bodies, and to maintain credibility with patients and peers alike, must adhere to the National Patient Safety Goals. As stated by Ulrich and Kear (2014), "Not only are nurses responsible for providing safe patient care, we are also responsible for creating an environment in which others can provide safe patient care, and for being the last line of defense when needed between the patient and potential harm. Having a deep understanding of patient safety and patient safety culture allows nurses to be the leaders we need to be in ensuring that our patients are always

The Joint Commission is a nonprofit organization that certifies more than 18,000 health care organization and programs throughout the world. Founded in 1951, the Joint Commission provides a national symbol of quality for health care as well as analyzes each organization’s commitment to meeting high quality performance standards. The Joint commission focuses on accrediting Acute Care Hospitals, ambulatory, behavior health, long term care, health care facilities, clinical laboratories, health care networks and hospice. Numerous of accreditation organization is also taking place within the United States, but the Joint commission remains the largest The Joint commission accredits 20,000 organization” which” one third are Hospitals.

When looking at the role of the Joint Commission their mission comes to mind; they state that their mission is to constantly improve health care for the masses, while considering connections with stakeholders, by looking at the health care organizations and compelling them to strive to give safe and effective care of the greatest quality. Though this is their overall mission they update their standards every year (The Joint Commission, 2016). These updates may add a new safety feature or amend a current safety feature or staffing problem or even looking at the sound system in a hospital (The Joint Commission, 2016). The whole role of the commission in giving these accreditations out is to ensure that hospitals are providing the utmost care

Nightingale Community Hospital (NCH) has thirteen months until their next Joint Commission audit. This report will evaluate Nightingale Hospital’s compliance in The Priority Focus Area of Communication using the Universal Protocol Standards from the Joint Commission Handbook. “The Universal Protocol was created to address the continuing occurrence of wrong site, wrong procedure and wrong person surgery and other procedures in Joint Commission accredited organizations” (Joint Commission, 2013).

2012 Joint Commission Patient Safety Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2014, from Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center: www.lovell.fhcc.va.gov/about/2012PatientSafetyGoals.pdf