Mac's Safety Space

OSHA’s big messages with new H1N1 compliance directive

Scott Wallask — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:39:05 +0000

Just a quick note that OSHA today posted a compliance directive that helps guide inspectors as they visit hospitals treating potential or confirmed H1N1 swine flu patients. I think there are two broad messages to take out of the compliance directive: Hospitals had better be following the CDC’s guidelines on protecting healthcare workers from H1N1 exposures There must [...]

You may be able to roll a monthly generator test into the triennial four-hour run

Steve MacArthur — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:06:10 +0000

Some hospitals do not have enough power tied into the generators to make 30% of nameplate on a monthly basis as required by The Joint Commission under environment of care standard EC.02.05.07, element of performance (EP) 4. In the interest of making very sure that they are sufficiently testing the generators, these organizations sometimes conduct a [...]

With OR humidity, follow CMS and risk assessment findings

Steve MacArthur — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:00:06 +0000

There is a great deal of not-quite-controversy relative to humidity concerns in operating rooms (OR) because of the personal comfort aspect. The American Institute of Architects’ 2001 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospital and Healthcare Facilities indicate a temperature range of 68° to 75° F and a humidity range of 30% to 60%, but there’s [...]

Using your Swiss Army knife on protected health information

Steve MacArthur — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:35:20 +0000

Recently on our chat group, Patient Safety Talk, someone raised a question about how to properly dispose of medication bottles that had patient information on them in terms of HIPAA compliance. My best advice would be to: Work with your compliance officer to make sure that the information contained on the labels actually meets the definition of [...]

Don’t sacrifice patient comfort for drill realism

Steve MacArthur — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:44:36 +0000

I was discussing emergency management scenarios involving a bomb threat and whether such exercises needed to include the movement of actual patients. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to craft an exercise that does not involve the relocation of patients. While I can appreciate that the more “real” you can be during an exercise, the better, it [...]

Digging into why LS.02.01.20 tops the most cited standards list

Steve MacArthur — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:54:53 +0000

I was talking to one of the writers for our Briefings on Hospital Safety newsletter and the question came up about The Joint Commission’s recently released top cited standards. The frequently cited standards are pretty much a numbers game and a continuation of the Life Safety Code compliance trends from 2007 and 2008, when it was [...]

Yet another safety standard hits The Joint Commission’s top 10

Scott Wallask — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:07:18 +0000

In a quick follow-up to our post last week about The Joint Commission’s top-cited standards for the first half of 2009, a more complete top 10 list now shows another life safety standard in the mix. LS.02.01.30, which requires hospitals to maintain building features to protect people from smoke and fire, was the sixth most cited [...]

After the Fort Hood shootings, Twitter proves useful for one hospital

Scott Wallask — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:49:19 +0000

For many people, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are frequently used to quote movie lines or discuss whether they had coffee or hair of the dog with their Corn Flakes. But from a professional standpoint, The Joint Commission is encouraging the use of social sites for emergency management purposes. Thursday’s shootings at Fort Hood, [...]

Even splintered, life safety standards top the citation list so far in 2009

Scott Wallask — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:55 +0000

When The Joint Commission announced a while back that the old EC.5.20 was the top cited standard in hospitals in 2008, there some observers (including me) who thought that statistic would be hard to repeat. After all, it was reasoned, the all-encompassing EC.5.20 had splintered into various new life safety standards in 2009, none of [...]

Be wary about using fire drills as emergency management tests

Steve MacArthur — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:42:19 +0000

I was recently asked whether fire drills could count towards The Joint Commission’s requirements for emergency management tests under EM.03.01.03. I suppose if you evaluated a fire drill to the extent called for under EM.03.01.03, including monitoring of the key response capabilities, you might — and I can not emphasize enough “might” — be able to [...]