National Patient Safety Goals

The Joint Commission Board of Commissioners has approved the National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on the reconciliation of medication information. This revision will go into effect July 1, 2011. The NPSG.08.01.01 has been under review since the second quarter of 2010 and was pending input received from the field. The NPSG.08.01.01 will now be under NPSG.03.06.01.

National Patient Safety Goal on Reconciling Medication Information

(NPSG.3.06.01)

December 7, 2010

The Joint Commission Board of Commissioners has approved revisions to the National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on reconciling medication information (was NPSG.08.01.01 but is now NPSG.03.06.01), effective July 1, 2011 for the ambulatory, behavioral health care, critical access hospital, home care, hospital, long term care, and office-based surgery accreditation programs.  The new, streamlined and focused version of the NPSG places a spotlight on critical risk points in the medication reconciliation process.  

The NPSG was revised based on input from the field about difficulties with implementation of the 2009 version of the NPSG because it was too prescriptive and detailed. In January 2009, The Joint Commission took action to reduce the burden of the NPSG on medication reconciliation for organizations and determined that survey findings would not be factored into the organization’s accreditation decision until a revised NPSG was developed. The revised NPSG underwent a field review in the second quarter of 2010; the review reaffirmed that medication reconciliation is an important patient safety issue that should continue as a NPSG.   Please note that NPSG.03.06.01 replaces Goal 8 (08.01.01, 08.02.01, 08.03.01 and 08.04.01) and its related elements of performance. (Contact:  Maureen Carr,mcarr@jointcommission.org)

Click here to go to the National Patient Safety Goals