The Positive Identification for Patient Safety; Part 1: Medication Delivery Standard has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The new standard, which defines the processes and technologies involved with safe medication administration and management, was a joint development effort between the Health Industry Business Communications Council (HIBCC) and Partners HealthCare System.

The standard was developed from work initiated by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a hospital within the Partners HealthCare System. In 2004 MGH commenced a project to define and develop a safer system for the administration of medications. The success of this effort encouraged the organization to gain formal standardization of its processes so they could be easily and uniformly implemented by other providers. HIBCC, an ANSI-accredited standards development organization (SDO), managed the process for an approved national standard. More information is available at the HIBCC Web site, www.hibcc.org.