The Joint Commission recently announced its 2009 National Patient Safety Goals and related requirements for its accreditation programs. The National Patient Safety Goals promote improvements in patient safety by providing healthcare organizations with proven solutions to persistent patient safety problems.

Major changes for 2009 include three new hospital and critical access hospital requirements. These are related to preventing deadly healthcare-associated infections due to multiple drug-resistant organisms, central line associated bloodstream infections and surgical site infections.
 
These changes will help lower the number of access site infections as well as transplant surgical sites for kidney patients.

This article originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of AAKP Public Policy Briefing.