Joint Commission releases 2020 National Patient Safety Goals

The Joint Commission releases 2020 goals

The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals are tailored for each of its eight specific programs, from ambulatory care to office-based surgery centers. Each year, The Joint Commission gathers information about emerging patient safety issues from widely recognized experts and stakeholders. The goals touch on issues related to the physical environment, such as mitigating ligature risk, managing medical equipment alarms and environmental services. The goals help to inform The Joint Commission’s sentinel event alerts, standards and survey processes, performance measures, educational materials and Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare projects.

CDC updates infection prevention guidelines 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an update to its 1998 guidelines to prevent and control infection in the health care workplace, including special considerations associated with emergency response personnel and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The updated guidelines apply to a broader range of health care settings, including hospital-based, long-term care and outpatient settings. New topics include using performance measures to track and guide quality improvement initiatives to prevent and control infections. The CDC is planning for additional updates to the guidelines in the future.

NFPA creates new technical committee

A new technical committee has been formed based on research completed in 2018 on conducting remote video inspections. The committee will be responsible for establishing requirements for the performance and use of remote methodologies. It will also set requirements for systems and components such as digital video, digital images and digital audio. It will also set requirements for collection, custody and maintenance of the data available from remote inspections.

Lab survey addresses duplicate requirements

Starting Jan. 1, any laboratory located inside a Joint Commission-accredited hospital or critical access hospital that is seeking accreditation through the Laboratory Accreditation program may choose not to be surveyed against selected duplicate requirements. However, the laboratory must declare during the application process that it wishes to pursue this option. The American Society for Health Care Engineering’s advocacy team reminds its members to document everything because “if it’s not documented, it didn’t happen.”