The Joint Commission is an independent agency that accredits health care organizations and programs. Since 2001, The Joint Commission (TJC) has published Patient Safety Goals (Table 1) with the intent of reducing medical/health care errors by focusing on patient safety issues.8
Table 1. The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals 2023 for Clinical Laboratories.Patient Safety Goal
| Methods to Meet Goals
|
Identify patients correctly (NPSG.01.01.01)
| Using at least two ways to identify patients. (For example, use the patient's name and date of birth.)
|
Improve staff communication (NPSG.02.03.01) | Report important test results to the right staff person on time.
|
Prevent infection (NPSG.07.01.01) | Use the hand-cleaning guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO). Set goals for improving hand-cleaning; use the goals to improve hand-cleaning.
|
These are not new goals for the laboratory; patient identification procedures and communication of laboratory test results were included in the first list of goals in 2003. Reducing healthcare-associated infections has been a goal since 2004.
