The board of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations approved 2005 National Patient Safety Goals during its July 9-10 meeting. The goals will replace the 2004 National Patient Safety Goals as of Jan. 1. Among the new requirements, health care organizations must work to ensure critical test results are communicated promptly; identify and take action to prevent errors involving look-alike and sound-alike drugs used at the organization; and assess each patient's risk for falling and take steps to address those risks. Health care organizations also must develop a process for identifying a complete list of a patient's current medications upon admission, and for communicating that information to the patient's next provider. As recommended by AHA in its April 30 comments on the proposed 2005 goals, JCAHO dropped proposed requirements that hospitals develop a plan for implementing bar coding technology by 2007, and install bed alarms to reduce the risk of harm from patient falls. The new goals soon will be available at

 http://www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/index.htm.