Patient safety: Why goals matter
In June, The Joint Commission released its 2009 National Patient Safety Goals. Now managers, educators and other perioperative professionals are working to update their facility guidelines and procedures to comply with the new requirements and ensure evidence of compliance during Joint Commission surveys. While this updating process can be time consuming and tedious, it's important to remember the end goal-saving patients' lives, said Joan Blanchard, RN, MSS, CNOR, CIC, perioperative nursing specialist in AORN's Center for Nursing Practice and an advisor on The Joint Commission's Professional and Technical Advisory Committee for hospitals. "These National Patient Safety Goals are based on the sentinel events reported to The Joint Commission and, unfortunately, life-threatening events such as wrong site surgery and medication error are still occurring," Blanchard stressed. Deaths resulted from more than 70% of sentinel events reported to The Joint Commission in 2007, according to data reported by The Joint Commission in a recent audio conference. Among the 4,977 sentinel events reported to The Joint Commission in 2007, events of wrong-site surgery, operative/postoperative complications and medication errors were in the top five reported sentinel events, with wrong-site surgery topping the list. Infection-related events also ranked high in The Joint Commission's 2007 reported sentinel events. "These numbers point out that healthcare facilities need to look for disconnects between written policy and practice. A facility may have all protocols and guidelines current with Joint Commission requirements, but healthcare professionals may not be following these requirements," Blanchard explained. "These goals are created to help you, to improve healthcare in your facility and, most importantly, to save patients from injury and possible death," Blanchard added. AORN's Director of Nursing Practice, Linda Shovan, RN, MSA, encouraged perioperative professionals to take this opportunity as they update guidelines and protocols to connect with medical staff, infection preventionists (infection control professionals) and even risk managers to determine disconnects and find ways such as communication and education to ensure compliance with The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals and requirements. She acknowledged that widespread buy-in and staff compliance can be a challenge. "Busy schedules, different practice styles and bad habits can lead to noncompliance, but perioperative professionals have the power to change this," Shovan emphasized. "Engage in dialogue with medical staff, remind them of the sentinel event data indicating patient danger due to medical error, and then remind them of the updated guidelines and policies that have been collaboratively created to prevent these errors." Additional Resources AORN Management Connections AORN Journal |
|
