Dive Brief:
- The Joint Commission has issued National Patient Safety Goals effective the first of January, 2014 for hospitals.
- According to Physicians Practice, medical practices should be aware the following four of these goals: clinical alarm management, use of two patient identifiers when providing care, improved communication regarding results of tests and diagnostic procedure, and medication safety guidelines addressing labeling on all medications.
- The clinical alarm management will be introduced this year, but integrated into phases that stretch to January 2016.
Dive Insight:
As might be expected, hospitals must bear the weight of most of these goals, some of which are particularly difficult to meet. For example, clinical alarm management has been a major problem for hospital IT departments for some time, but facilities are making very slow progress in this area. However, physicians can assist in meeting these goals, especially physicians in improving communication around testing diagnostic procedures. Bottom line, though it sounds a bit trite, the reality is that meeting these goals requires particularly tight cooperation between doctors and hospitals. Other than that, some of these objectives are practically unattainable.