In the news: Joint Commission launches Center for Transforming Healthcare to tackle patient safety issues

The Joint Commission (formerly JACHO) last week announced the launch of the Center for Transforming Healthcare, an initiative involving hospitals across the country to address obstacles that prevent patient safety measures from being carried out.

Among its first goals is to promote hand hygiene. The Center for Transforming Healthcare found that lack of hand washing causes infections that kill up to 100,000 patients per year and costs hospitals anywhere between $4 billion-$29 billion, according to a Sept. 10 Joint Commission press release.

“Hand washing in hospitals should become as automatic as looking both ways before crossing the street,” said William D. Petasnick, FACHE, president and CEO at Froedtert Hospital, in the press release. “As we achieve successful and sustainable progress in improving this long-standing issue, I’m confident hospitals can apply the same collaborative techniques and process improvement tools to other complex patient safety issues.”

The Center for Transforming Healthcare is targeting handoffs and related communication failures as its next patient safety initiative.

[via Patient Safety Monitor Blog]