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PERSONAL SAFETY CORPORATION (PSC) ENDORSES THE JCAHO
NATIONAL PATIENT SAFETY GOALS FOR 2008
October, 2007
PSC congratulates the Joint Commission on their National Patient Safety Goals for 2008, which were approved June 1, 2007. Among the safety goals, health care organizations must work to assess each patient’s risk for falling and take steps to address those risks.
Goal 9:
- Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls
Requirement:
- Implement a fall reduction program including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program
Applies to: Assisted Living, Critical Access Hospital, Disease-Specific Care, Home Care, Hospital, Long Term Care |
We feel that the proposed National Patient Safety Goals, particularly as they related to reducing the risk of harm resulting from falls, represent an important step in ensuring patient safety.
To help organizations reduce the risk of patient falls and meet the JCAHO requirements, PSC firmly believes that fall alarms and hip protectors are an important component of any fall prevention program. Fall alarms represent an important fall preventive strategy in alerting nursing staff that patients who should not be attempting to leave the bed, chair or toilet unassisted are doing so, and hip protectors are of beneficial in reducing the risk of injurious falls.
As a stakeholder in patient safety improvement, PSC views the 2008 National Patient Safety Goals to be a positive step toward reducing patient falls and injury. PSC will continue to work with healthcare organizations to make them a reality.
Sincerely,
Richard T. Olson
President
Personal Safety Corporation
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