National Patient Safety Goals

National Patient Safety Goals

An important part of providing healthcare is making sure the patients are safe. The Joint Commission established the National Patient Safety Objectives in the US to enhance patient safety and lower the possibility of unfavorable incidents in healthcare institutions. The National Patient Safety Goals provide guidelines that focus on specific areas of patient safety, including identifying patients correctly, reducing the risk of infection, improving medication safety, and improving communication among caregivers. This essay will discuss how the National Patient Safety Objectives influence patient safety by identifying quality improvement projects.

Overview of National Patient Safety Goals

National Patient Safety Goals were established to ensure that hospitals and other healthcare organizations have a structured approach to addressing patient safety issues. The National Patient Safety Goals outline the most critical areas of concern that healthcare organizations need to focus on to ensure safe care delivery and prevent errors that may cause harm to patients (Vaismoradi et al., 2020). The TJC reviews and updates the goals every year to ensure they take the most recent data and best practices for patient safety into account. The plans are divided into different categories that focus on specific areas of patient safety, including identifying patients correctly, preventing falls, reducing the risk of infection, and improving medication safety. Do you need urgent assignment help ? Get in touch with us at eminencepapers.com. We endeavor to provide you with excellent service.

In addition to the specific goals, the National Patient Safety Goals require healthcare organizations to establish a safety culture, promote effective communication, and ensure that staff are trained in patient safety principles and practices (De Brún et al., 2020). Healthcare organizations are expected to regularly assess their compliance with the National Patient Safety Goals and implement changes to address any identified areas of non-compliance.

How well the National Patient Safety Objectives in the United States Help Find Quality Enhancement Projects and Affect Patient Safety

Improving patient identification is one of the national patient safety goals. This guarantees that healthcare providers will use at least two patient identities. This helps when providing care, treatment, and services to prevent the misidentification of patients, which can result in serious medical errors, such as administering the wrong medication or performing a procedure on the wrong patient. One element of this goal is to Verify the patient’s identity before issuing medication or blood products or before fulfilling any design or test.

The enhancement of caregiver communication is a further national patient safety objective. This goal encourages healthcare organizations to implement standardized communication protocols to ensure that important information is shared accurately and effectively among all care team members. This can prevent miscommunication errors that can lead to adverse events, such as misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, or medication errors. Elements of this goal include using read-back or repeat-back techniques to verify important information and to encourage reporting errors and near-misses related to communication breakdowns.

Lowering the risk of infections related to healthcare is another national patient safety objective. This goal encourages healthcare organizations to implement evidence-based infection prevention practices to reduce the risk of infections in patients. This includes practices like good hand hygiene, maintaining a clean environment, and using antibiotics as needed. An element of this goal is monitoring and tracking healthcare-associated infections and implementing interventions to prevent further spread.

Reducing the risk of patient harm from falls is also a National Patient Safety Objective. This goal encourages healthcare organizations to implement fall prevention strategies, such as assessing patients’ fall risk, providing appropriate assistive devices, and educating patients and families about fall prevention. By reducing the risk of falls, healthcare organizations can prevent injuries and improve patient safety (LeLaurin & Shorr, 2019). An element of this goal is educating patients and families about fall prevention.

Making high-alert drugs safer is another national patient safety goal. Improving the safety of high-alert drugs encourages healthcare organizations to implement medication safety practices to reduce the risk of errors with high-alert medications, such as anticoagulants or opioids. This goal involves strategies such as double-checking medication orders, using standardized concentrations, and educating patients and families about medication safety.

A sixth National Patient Safety Goal is reducing the risk of surgical site infections. Healthcare organizations are encouraged to use evidence-based procedures to lower the risk of infections in surgical patients by reducing the risk of surgical site infections (Dixon et al., 2022). Elements of this goal include measures such as appropriate use of antibiotics, surgical site preparation, and proper handling of surgical instruments. By reducing the risk of surgical site infections, healthcare organizations can improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

Another National Patient Safety Goal is improving the use of clinical alarms. Clinical alarms encourage healthcare organizations to establish policies and procedures to ensure that clinical alarms are used appropriately and effectively. This can help to reduce alarm fatigue and prevent adverse events, such as delays in treatment or missed diagnoses. This goal includes educating healthcare staff about the importance of timely responding to alarms.

Reducing the risk of patient suicide is the other National Patient Safety goal. This goal encourages healthcare organizations to identify patients at risk for suicide and implement appropriate interventions to prevent suicide (Dunn, 2020). This includes measures such as suicide risk assessments, safety planning, and providing education to patients and families about suicide prevention. One of the elements of this goal includes ensuring that patients who have attempted suicide receive appropriate follow-up care and support.

Conclusion

The National Patient Safety Goals are critical for healthcare organizations to improve patient safety and reduce the risk of adverse events. By focusing on specific areas of concern, such as patient identification, communication, infection prevention, fall prevention, medication safety, surgical site infections, clinical alarms, and patient suicide, healthcare organizations can identify quality improvement initiatives and implement evidence-based practices to improve patient outcomes. It is essential for healthcare organizations to regularly assess their compliance with the National Patient Safety Goals and implement changes to address any identified areas of non-compliance to ensure the delivery of safe and effective care to patients.

References

De Brún, A., Anjara, S., Cunningham, U., Khurshid, Z., Macdonald, S., O’Donovan, R., Rogers, L., & McAuliffe, E. (2020). The Collective Leadership for Safety Culture (Co-Lead) Team Intervention to Promote Teamwork and Patient Safety. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8673. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228673

Dixon, L. K., Biggs, S., Messenger, D., & Shabbir, J. (2022). Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Prevention Bundle in Elective Colorectal Surgery. Journal of Hospital Infection. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2022.01.023

Dunn, C. (2020). Patient Suicide and Self-harm Prevention Strategies in Hospitals. https://iahssf.org/assets/Patient-Suicide-and-Self-Harm-Prevention-Strategies-in-Hospitals.pdf

LeLaurin, J. H., & Shorr, R. I. (2019). Preventing Falls in Hospitalized Patients. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 35(2), 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cger.2019.01.007

Vaismoradi, M., Tella, S., A. Logan, P., Khakurel, J., & Vizcaya-Moreno, F. (2020). Nurses’ adherence to patient safety principles: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/Free Essay Example

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

Provide an overview of National Patient Safety Goals. Describe how the National (USA) Patient Safety Goals help identify quality improvement initiatives and impact patient safety.

Include elements of each goal that will provide a rationale for the importance of goals and patient safety.

USE SCHOLARLY SOURCES