Time to Provide Feedback on Suggested Medication Reconciliation Changes

• 4/14/2010
• Author: Janet Pimentel
• Category: The Source Blog
• 12729 Views
• 0 Comments
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Don’t forget to review the latest draft of the revised Medication Reconciliation National Patient Safety Goal, also known as NPSG.08.01.01, which has been posted on The Joint Commission’s Web site. The proposed changes include critical risk points associated with maintaining and communicating patients’ medication information in the medication reconciliation process. Since medication reconciliation is a medication safety issue, The Joint Commission is proposing to relocate those risk points in the medication reconciliation requirements from NPSG.08.01.01 to NPSG.03.07.01 since NPSG 3 focuses on improving the safety of using medications. Some risk points mentioned include obtaining medication information when the person enters the organization and comparing the person’s current medications to any new medications ordered for that person. NPSG.03.07.01 is proposed for ambulatory care, behavioral health care, critical access hospital, hospitals, home care, long term care, and the office-based surgery.

Organizations will have until May 11, 2010, to review and comment on the proposed changes to the Medication Reconciliation requirement, but The Joint Commission would prefer if comments were received before April 30. It’s important to provide your input by the designated field review deadline because your comments will be considered and could make a difference in the final outcome. The current plan is to present revisions to the medication reconciliation requirement to The Joint Commission’s Standards and Survey Procedures (SSP) Committee for approval by the end of May. If those recommendations are well received, it could mean this revised NPSG could be implemented as early as January 2011. But if your comments suggest that more revisions need to be made, the plan’s time frame could be changed.

The draft information for medication reconciliation that is posted on the Web site is very easy to follow. The history tracking reports for each program clearly show the old information on the left side of the page and the new proposed language and relocation on the right side of the page. Check it out!

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