• E-mail
• Print
• RSS
• Buy It Now
• Reprints

VA crafts policy to address anticoagulation NPSG

Briefings on The Joint Commission, October 1, 2007

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Briefings on The Joint Commission.

The 2008 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) has targeted anticoagulation therapy as an area of risk that must be reduced, with full implementation required by January 2009. The requirement is set to be phased in during 2008. "They learned the lesson from medication reconciliation, where people sat on their hands for a year," says John Rosing, MHA, FACHE, practice director of accreditation and regulatory compliance with The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA, speculating why The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) implemented a phase-in approach for this goal. For facilities with existing anticoagulation therapy clinics, addressing this goal can be best handled by creating a policy, in conjunction with the pharmacy, that accurately addresses the four phase-in stages for reducing anticoagulation therapy. To address these requirements, James H. Quillen VA (Veterans Affairs) Medical Center (VAMC) in Mountain Home, TN, has instituted a policy that has identified necessary actions for implementation of these changes by the January 2009 deadline.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Briefings on The Joint Commission.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive
• Buy It Now
• Reprints / Permissions