MINNEAPOLIS, June 18, 2008—The Joint Commission today announced the 2009 National Patient Safety Goals and related requirements for each of its accreditation programs and its Disease-Specific Care Certification Program.

The National Patient Safety Goals promote specific improvements in patient safety by providing health care organizations with proven solutions to persistent patient safety problems. These goals apply to the more than 15,000 Joint Commission-accredited and -certified health care organizations and programs.

Major changes for 2009 include three new hospital and critical access hospital requirements related to preventing deadly health care-associated infections due to multiple drug-resistant organisms (MDROs), central line-associated bloodstream infections and surgical site infections.

The new requirements related to central line-associated bloodstream infections also will take effect for ambulatory care facilities and office-based surgery practices, home care organizations and long term care organizations.

In addition, prevention of surgical site infections will be a new requirement for ambulatory care facilities and office-based surgery practices. 

A revision of the requirements for the existing medication reconciliation goal is based on feedback obtained from a Medication Reconciliation Summit convened in late 2007 and is included in the 2009 update.

Other changes to the National Patient Safety Goals include a requirement to eliminate transfusion errors related to patient misidentification in hospitals, critical access hospitals, ambulatory care facilities and office-based surgery practices.

New requirements for several programs focus on engaging patients in their care regarding infection control, prevention of surgical adverse events, and the patient identification process.

Joint Commission news release