The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) have become a critical method by which the Joint Commission promotes and enforces major changes in patient safety in thousands of participating health care organizations around the world. The criteria used for determining the value of these goals, and required revisions to them, are based on the merit of their impact, cost, and effectiveness. Recent changes have focused on highlighting the importance of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and refining the requirements for medication reconciliation. The 2012 version takes this further with the addition of a new element to Goal #7 (reducing HAIs) that requires hospitals to implement evidence-based practices to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The other notable revision is the complete removal of Goal #8 that focused on medication reconciliation. The new requirement for “maintaining and communicating patient medication information” is now part of the broader Goal #3 on Improving the Safety of Using Medications (change effective July 1, 2011). The 2012 NPSGs will otherwise be effective January 1, 2012.