The Joint Commission formulated National Patient Safety Goals regarding several issues facing the health care sector. The national health care goals encompassed a number of programs including, ambulatory health care, behavioral health care, hospitals, home care, office-based surgery, laboratory services, nursing care center and long-term care. The paper focuses on two goals related to health information. It describes what the commission requires and how it can achieve the set goals.
Ambulatory Care
The goal on the ambulatory care aims at improving patients’ safety. It addresses some of the health care problems and provides solutions. Ambulatory care is an individual health care treatment provided using advanced procedures or medical based on an outpatient program. The specific aim of this goal is to maintain health safety of patients undergoing the ambulatory health care program. It requires that medical personnel identify patients correctly; use medicines safely, prevent infections, and prevent surgical mistakes.
The achievement of these requirements involves constructive engagement of medical staff. Medical personnel can properly identify patients using more than one criterion. The information management system must also be robust enough to withstand manipulation and data losses. Proper identification ensures that patients obtain right prescriptions. The staff must label all medicines appropriately and do a comparison between the administered drug and a new drug. An implementation strategy on preventing infection demands that medical personnel use relevant cleaning guidelines when cleaning their hands. Lastly, the ambulatory care goal can be implemented through the performance of the right surgery to the correct patient at the correct time.
Home Care
Home Care is a critical health care sector that attracts the interest to the commission. The purpose of the goals was to ensure that patients receiving health services from their homes are free from any actions that can jeopardize their levels of health safety. The goal aims at providing proper identification of patients; using medicines safely, preventing infections and preventing patients from falling. It also aims at preventing patients from safety risks.
The realization of this goal depends on the involvement of medical personnel and the family of the patient. Medical personnel must perform a proper assessment of the patient’s home to determine the level of health risk that the environment poses. Doctors must identify patients who are likely to fall or who are under strong medication that may cause dizziness. In the course of implementing this goal, the medical personnel must also ensure that they follow the cleaning guidelines promptly. In home care, the medical team must ensure that they record and pass along the right information about the medication history of the patient. They must maintain a clean record of the medicines administered to the patient. Before administering a new drug, they must check the medication history to establish a relation between the previous medication and a new one. Above all, implementation of the goals requires proper identification that is chief in avoiding health care safety risks
In conclusion, the Joint Commission set several goals to ensure patient’s safety in the provision of health care. The goals encompass home care services and ambulatory health care services. The goals collectively aim at minimizing health risks through correct identification of patients; the use medicines safely, and prevent of infections. The implementation of the goals requires a series of initiatives and a thorough indulgence of the medical community.
Work Cited
The Joint Commission. "National Patient Safety Goals | Joint Commission." N.p., 2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/npsgs.aspx>.
