The Joint Commission 2008 National Patient Safety Goals set forth clear guidelines for how health care organizations can improve the quality of care. As the following table illustrates, MEDITECH's Health Care Information System (HCIS) provides many tools to help organizations increase patient safety and meet The Joint Commission's goals.

The Joint Commission Goal	The Joint Commission Goal Description	MEDITECH Tools
Goal #1: Improve the accuracy of patient identification	a) Use at least two patient identifiers when providing care, treatment, or services. b) Prior to the start of any invasive procedure, conduct a final verification process (such as a "time-out") to confirm the correct patient, procedure, and site using active—not passive—communication techniques.	MEDITECH's HCIS ensures positive patient identification. Caregivers can use medical numbers, health insurance numbers, account numbers saved within the MEDITECH system, and swipe technology to identify their patients prior to taking blood samples, administering medications, or blood products. MEDITECH's HCIS helps to ensure safe medication administration through the Five Rights of medication management: Right Patient, Right Medication, Right Dosage, Right Route, and Right Time. To ensure that the right patient gets the right medication, MEDITECH's system offers a variety of patient identifiers, including the ability to scan bar codes on patient wristbands and medications to correctly identify the patient and the appropriate medication. Caregivers utilize bar code scanning technology prior to administering medications to confirm patient identity and medication information against data readily available via MEDITECH's on-line Medication Administration Record.
Goal #2: Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers	a) For verbal or telephone orders or for telephonic reporting of critical test results, verify the complete order or test result by having the person receiving the information record and "read-back" the complete order or test result. b) Standardize a list of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations that are not to be used throughout the organization. c.) Measure, assess, and if appropriate, take action to improve the timeliness of reporting, and the timeliness of receipt by the responsible licensed caregiver, of critical test results and values. e.) Implement a standardized approach to "hand off" communications, including an opportunity to ask and respond to questions.	MEDITECH provides physician desktops and nursing status boards as a global view of the caregiver's patients and serves as a central point from which to process all aspects of the patient's care. MEDITECH's fully-integrated system facilitates comprehensive, enterprise-wide communication throughout a health care organization. MEDITECH's table-driven system can assist in meeting The Joint Commission's list of do not use abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols throughout your organization. Relevant clinical data displays provide real-time patient information that is readily available when managing medication therapies, both at the point of order entry and during medication administration. Whether ordering or administering medications, clinicians have the right information, which provides critical decision support. Capabilities from throughout the MEDITECH HCIS are integrated to ensure a coordinated and safe ordering process. Pharmacists, nurses, laboratory and radiology technicians, and the rest of the care team are all included in the physician-initiated process. Physicians can also sign any verbal orders and view results from wherever they may be.
Goal #3: Improve the safety of using medications	c) Identify and, at a minimum, annually review a list of look-alike/sound-alike drugs used by the organization, and take action to prevent errors involving the interchange of these drugs. d.) Label all medications, medication containers (e.g. syringes, medicine cups, basins), or other solutions on and off the sterile field. e.) Reduce the likelihood of patient harm associated with the use of anticoagulation therapy	In order to limit and standardize drug concentrations, the MEDITECH system helps control and manage inventory, analyze supply usage, and manage maintenance equipment throughout your health care organization. To help pharmacists comply with government regulations, organizations can track inventory more closely by identifying stock medications at all stock locations and record the use of controlled substances. Pharmacists can also create robust reports including Controlled Drug Dispensed Report, Controlled Medication Log, and Daily Controlled Drug Inventory Report. MEDITECH can also support users in providing the capability of printing labels in supporting applications.
Goal #7: Reduce the risk of health care-associated infections	a) Comply with current World Health Organization (WHO) Hand Hygiene Guidelines or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hand hygiene guidelines. b) Manage as sentinel events all identified cases of unanticipated death or major permanent loss of function associated with a health care-acquired infection.	The infection control functionality of MEDITECH's Laboratory Information System helps providers to effectively and efficiently identify health care-associated infections. An organization's infection control group can easily track patient infections by automatically flagging organisms by markers or through other customer-defined screens. Staff has the ability to generate reports based on patient, location, physician, site of the infection and type of organism - whether sensitive or resistant to certain antibiotics. Depending on the outcome of the reports, the infection control group can automatically receive alerts, which will assist them in tracking nonsocomial infections. Clinicians can also pull data from throughout the MEDITECH HCIS and store it in a secure database for robust reporting and benchmarking by authorized users. Organizations can thereby track and report on a variety of issues such as patient and visitor incidents, adverse drug events, employee health and safety, blood utilization, and infections with complete confidentiality. Staff has the ability to effectively analyze their efforts and devise strategies for improving outcomes and regulatory compliance.
Goal #8: Accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum of care	a) There is a process for comparing the patient's current medications with those ordered for the patient while under the care of the organization. b) A complete list of the patient's medications is communicated to the next provider of service when a patient is referred or transferred to another setting, service, practitioner, or level of care within or outside the organization. The complete list of medications is also provided to the patient on discharge from the facility.	MEDITECH's integrated and dynamic order management features provide users with the ability to capture and update medication information from a variety of settings. Whether at an associated physician practice, or in an ambulatory setting such as a clinic or the emergency department, medications that the patient currently takes at home are captured or updated, creating a profile list of medications for clinicians to view throughout the health care enterprise. Any medications written for the patient during the current visit are added to the medication profile. In addition, when the patient is discharged from the facility, medications from the inpatient stay can be converted to outpatient prescriptions. The comprehensive medication profile list can be viewed throughout the enterprise, for patients who are transferring within the organization. Conversely, a list of the patient's active prescriptions can be generated and made available when the patient transfers outside the network.
Goal #9: Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls	b) Implement a fall reduction program including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program.	MEDITECH's clinical and practice solutions provide assessments that allow caregivers to document patient care, and proactively process suggested problems and identify potential risk. These solutions enable thorough review of event details, including patient medications, through reports that determine root cause of fall-related incidents, as well as tracking the efficiency of fall prevention programs.
Goal #10: Reduce the risk of influenza and pneumococcal disease in institutionalized older adults	a) Develop and implement a protocol for administration and documentation of the flu vaccine. b) Develop and implement a protocol for administration and documentation of the pneumococcus vaccine. c) Develop and implement a protocol to identify new cases of influenza and to manage an outbreak.	Through MEDITECH's clinical and practice solutions, caregivers can document patient treatments. This documentation is shared through the patient's medication history for all providers and caregivers to see across the continuum of care. MEDITECH's physician solutions also keep track of any patient's health maintenance needs. The system will notify the provider and the patient when those periodic treatments, visits, test, and vaccines are needed.
Goal #11: Reduce the risk of surgical fires	a) Educate staff, including operating licensed independent practitioners and anesthesia providers, on how to control heat sources and manage fuels with enough time for patient preparation, and establish guidelines to minimize oxygen concentration under drapes.	MEDITECH's Human Resource feature allows the tracking of staff education requirements and fulfillments.
Goal #12: Implementation of applicable National Patient Safety Goals and associated requirements by components and practitioner sites	a) Inform and encourage components and practitioner sites to implement the applicable National Patient Safety Goals and associated requirements.	MEDITECH provides integrated software solutions to meet the information needs of health care organizations around the world. We understand the complexities of health care organizations and develop the informatics tools needed to deliver patient care safely and efficiently. From large integrated delivery networks to community hospitals, our software solutions support the entire continuum of health care, including physician practices, clinics, hospitals, long-term care facilities, home health agencies, and behavioral health facilities.
Goal #13: Encourage patients' active involvement in their own care as a patient safety strategy	a) Define and communicate the means for patients and their families to report concerns about safety and encourage them to do so.	MEDITECH's flexible, integrated solutions have the ability to create patient and family surveys, which can assist your organization in tracking and trending safety concerns.
Goal #14: Prevent health care-associated pressure ulcers (decubitus ulcers)	a) Assess and periodically reassess each resident's risk for developing a pressure ulcer (decubitus ulcer) and take action to address any identified risks.	At the point-of-care, MEDITECH's clinical applications create an initial assessment to identify those residents at risk for pressure ulcers. In turn, this assessement will assist your clinical decisions for monitoring and preventing health care-associated pressure ulcers.
Goal #15: The organization identifies safety risks inherent in its patient population	a) The organization identifies patients at risk for suicide. b) The organization identifies risks associated with long-term oxygen therapy such as home fires.	MEDITECH's clinical applications offer assessments that can be used to identify any patient that may be at risk, with the additional ability to track and trend those outcomes.
Goal #16: Improve recognition and response to changes in a patient's condition	The organization selects a suitable method that enables health care staff members to directly request additional assistance from a specially trained individual(s) when the patient's condition appears to be worsening.	MEDITECH's clinical applications push vital patient information out to the clinicians and providers at the time of order communication. Patient trends and outcomes can also be seen in the patient's on-line medical record. To assist you in patient care coordination, trending and critical alert information is available at your fingertips.