The Joint Commission will wait to release National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) 08.01.01 to the field so its advisory and board committees can review the draft, according to an official statement on its Web site.
NPSG.08.01.01, addresses medication reconciliation, which in years past The Joint Commission had targeted as part of its effort to prevent medication errors—which continue to be one of the most frequent causes of preventable errors in hospitals. However, since the standard's inception in 2005, hospitals have struggled to find the right combination of processes to meet the requirements of this goal.
The Joint Commission reduced the NPSG on medication reconciliation in March 2009 to help take off some of the burden on organizations—NPSG 8 continued to be evaluated during on-site surveys, but findings are not currently considered into the organization's accreditation decision, and no Requirements for Improvement (RFIs) are documented.
Additional revisions to NPSG 8 are expected to go through the Joint Commission's Standards and Survey Procedures Committee for approval sometime this spring.
Matt Phillion, CSHA, is senior managing editor of Briefings on The Joint Commission and senior editorial advisor for the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (AHAP).