HLT-313V Topic 3 DQ 1

The Joint Commission launched the National Patient Safety Goals in 2003 and most recently updated the goals again for 2020. Many years have now passed since the inception of these goals. How has the overall focus of the goals changed in the intervening years? What conditions in the health care marketplace have driven the need for change?
You are required to use and cite a minimum of two references to support your response.

Solution

The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) launched in 2003 have developed to tackle new healthcare challenges that emerged since their debut. During the first phase of the National Patient Safety Goals program core safety issues such as improved patient identification along with reduced medication errors and healthcare-associated infection prevention took priority (Joint Commission, 2003). The program has gained more medical technologies and patient care complexity but also added behavioral health importance to its framework during its development. The Joint Commission made its 2020 updates focus on protecting patients from suicide within healthcare environments alongside ensuring safe medication anticoagulation through its risk management approach (Joint Commission, 2020).

These healthcare updates became necessary because of shifts in the health sector. The World Health Organization [WHO] (2021) reports that the development of chronic illnesses from an aging population produces complicated care needs and drives the necessity for these updates. EHR adoption generates new risks which include patient misidentification along with cybersecurity threats that lead to specific safety goals which focus on digital accuracy improvement (Ratwani et al., 2018).

Healthcare organizations now understand that infection control along with workforce safety maintain critical importance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered healthcare organizations to enhance infection control protocols that protect both the spread of diseases and healthcare workforce mental health (Berwick, 2020). NPSGs now emphasize a collective approach which merges hospital technology solutions with public health requirements and employee wellness despite their previous emphasis on single-professional errors.

References
Berwick, D. M. (2020). Choices for the “new normal.” JAMA, 323(21), 2125–2126. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.6949

Joint Commission. (2003). National patient safety goals. Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/2003_NPSG.pdf

Joint Commission. (2020). National patient safety goals effective January 2020. Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/standards/national-patient-safety-goals

Ratwani, R. M., Benda, N. C., Hettinger, A. Z., & Fairbanks, R. J. (2018). Electronic health record usability: Analysis of the user-centered design processes of eleven electronic health record vendors. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 25(7), 867–872. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocy050

World Health Organization. (2021). Aging and health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health

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