National Patient Safety Goals. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: The Joint Commission; 2011.

The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) have become a critical method by which the Joint Commission promotes and enforces major changes in patient safety in thousands of participating health care organizations around the world. The criteria used for determining the value of these goals, and required revisions to them, are based on the merit of their impact, cost, and effectiveness. Recent changes have focused on highlighting the importance of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and refining the requirements for medication reconciliation. The 2012 version takes this further with the addition of a new element to Goal #7 (reducing HAIs) that requires hospitals to implement evidence-based practices to preventcatheter-associated urinary tract infections. The other notable revision is the complete removal of Goal #8 that focused on medication reconciliation. The new requirement for maintaining and communicating patient medication information is now part of the broader Goal #3 on Improving the Safety of Using Medications (change effective July 1, 2011). The 2012 NPSGs will otherwise be effective January 1, 2012.
The goals took effect Jan. 1. A new one this year is focused on catheter-associated urinary tract infections for the hospital and critical access hospital accreditation programs.

Jan 05, 2012

The Joint Commission's 2012 National Patient Safety Goals became effective Jan. 1 and are available both in full text and in easy-to-read versions on the commission'swebsite. The 2012 goals continue a program that began in 2002; the first set of goals took effect Jan. 1, 2003. This year that is one new goal that is focused on catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) for the hospital and critical access hospital accreditation programs. The goals for hospitals concern correct identification of patients, improved staff communications, safe use of medicines, infection prevention, identification of patient safety risks, and prevention of surgical mistakes. For more information about the new CAUTI goal, visit the Prepublication Standards section. Patient safety experts advise the commission on the development and updating of the goals, which were established to help accredited organizations address specific areas of concern in regards to patient safety, according to the commission.\