Oklahoma Hospital National Patient Safety Goals (Nests) are a set of guidelines and initiatives implemented to improve patient safety and prevent potential adverse events within hospitals and healthcare facilities across Oklahoma. These goals are established by The Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies healthcare organizations in the United States. The primary objective of the Oklahoma Hospital Nests is to provide a standardized framework and promote a culture of safety, ensuring that patients receive high-quality care while minimizing the risk of harm or errors during their hospital stay. These goals encompass several crucial areas of patient safety, including: 1. Patient identification: To prevent patient identification and ensure the correct patient receives the intended treatment, it is essential to accurately identify patients through the use of two unique patient identifiers. 2. Effective communication: Adequate communication among healthcare providers is critical to prevent errors and delays in patient care. Implementing standardized communication processes and vital information hand off protocols can significantly enhance patient safety. 3. Medication safety: Reducing medication errors is a key focus area. Hospitals need to establish systems for safely prescribing, dispensing, and administering medications. This includes utilizing barcode scanning technology, educating staff on medication safety practices, and reconciling medications during care transitions. 4. Infection prevention: Preventing healthcare-associated infections is another crucial aspect of patient safety. Healthcare facilities should have comprehensive infection control programs in place, which include proper hand hygiene, appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and adherence to isolation protocols. 5. Fall prevention: Hospitals should implement fall prevention strategies to minimize the risk of patient falls, especially among vulnerable populations such as the elderly. This may involve conducting fall risk assessments, providing appropriate assistive devices, and ensuring a safe environment. 6. Surgical site infection prevention: Specific goals focus on reducing the occurrence of surgical site infections by implementing evidence-based practices, such as proper surgical site preparation, antibiotic administration, and maintaining sterile techniques during surgery. 7. Clinical alarm management: Healthcare organizations need to develop and implement processes for managing clinical alarms effectively to avoid alarm fatigue and enhance patient safety. This involves establishing alarm systems that are appropriately set, monitored, and responded too promptly. It is important to note that these goals are regularly updated and refined by The Joint Commission based on emerging patient safety issues and best practices. Healthcare organizations in Oklahoma must proactively adopt and adhere to these goals to ensure the highest level of patient safety and quality care delivery.