March 10, 2006

MGHers work toward meeting National Patient Safety Goals

While there is a nationwide focus to improve the standards of patient safety measures in hospitals around the country, the MGH has been concerned about and working to improve patient safety for a long time. Like many hospitals, the MGH is part of an ongoing effort to achieve the requirements described by the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs), established by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). These measures are meant to bring focus to patient safety priorities at all health care organizations and give national attention to finding better ways to protect patients.

The goals focus on problematic areas in health care — such as medication safety and preventing health- care-related infections — and are meant to help health care organizations use systems and techniques to further improve safety during patient care experiences.

"There is an intense focus on a national level and locally with individual health care organizations to find better ways to protect patients from needless errors and adverse events," says Maryanne Spicer, director of Compliance and chair of the hospital's JCAHO Operations Committee. "The National Patient Safety Goals help guide organizations like the MGH in addressing safety issues. The MGH is committed to meeting these goals not only to meet compliance requirements for the JCAHO but also because it is the right thing to do for our patients."

All types of health care organizations — such as hospitals, home care facilities, assisted-living organizations and ambulatory care practices — has its own set of goals. Below is the list of the hospital-based NPSGs. Because of the different categories of goals and because the JCAHO has retired previous goals, the listing is not in complete numerical order.

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 of                  care.
Goal 9 — Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls.

To learn more about the NPSGs and to get a status report on how the MGH is accomplishing these goals, visit the hospital's JCAHO website at www2.massgeneral.org/jcaho. In addition, FYI papers and posters (such as the poster shown above) can be viewed and printed from the JCAHO website.