2025 Hospital National Patient Safety Goals
The purpose of the National Patient Safety Goals is to improve patient safety. The Goals focus on problems in health care safety and how to solve them. Each year, The Joint Commission gathers information about emerging patient safety issues from widely recognized experts and stakeholders. This information is the basis for their National Patient Safety Goals. Capital Health abides by these goals.
Identify patients correctly
- Use at least two ways to identify patients. For example, use the patient’s name and date of birth. This is done to make sure that each patient gets the correct medicine and treatment.
Improve staff communication
- Get important test results to the right staff person on time.
Use medicines safely
- Before a procedure, label medicines that are not labeled. For example, medicines in syringes, cups and basins. Do this in the area where medicines and supplies are set up.
- Take extra care with patients who take medicines to thin their blood.
- Record and pass along correct information about a patient’s medicines. Find out what medicines the patient is taking. Compare those medicines to new medicines given to the patient. Give the patient written information about the medicines they need to take. Tell the patient it is important to bring their up-to-date list of medicines every time they visit a doctor.
Use alarms safely
- Make improvements to ensure that alarms on medical equipment are heard and responded to on time.
Prevent infection
- Use the hand cleaning guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization. Set goals for improving hand cleaning.
Identify patient safety risks
- Reduce the risk for suicide.
Improve health care equity
- Improving health care equity is a quality and patient safety priority. For example, health care disparities in the patient population are identified and a written plan describes ways to improve health care equity.
Prevent mistakes in surgery
- Make sure that the correct surgery is done on the correct patient and at the correct place on the patient’s body.
- Mark the correct place on the patient’s body where the surgery is to be done.
- Pause before the surgery to make sure that a mistake is not being made.