Avoid fire drill citations with new matrix
Accreditation Insider, September 6, 2016
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Accreditation Insider!
Several months ago, Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) in Seattle was denied full Joint Commission accreditation, in part due to its handling of fire drills. The facility received its citation for failing to vary the times and days when drills were conducted.
Now, The Joint Commission has released a new fire drill matrix for facilities to forestall confusion on survey day. The matrix tracks the day, date, time, and shifts when fire drills are conducted to ensure that they were conducted according to Joint Commission and CMS regulations. While they’ll still examine fire drill forms, surveyors will also give a copy of the matrix to hospitals when they arrive; although you can download an Excel copy of it here.
The accreditor requires facilities to hold fire drills at random times to ensure that staff are ready when an actual emergency happens. Jim Kendig, The Joint Commission’s field director for surveyor management and development, said in a press release that hospitals are often unaware that they are conducting fire drills at similar times and days. The matrix helps them notice any patterns in scheduling that otherwise might escape notice.
“It becomes apparent,” Kendig said. “Hospitals can use this ahead of time, see patterns, and self-correct.”
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Accreditation Insider!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Residency coordinators’ responsibilities
- RPA Subscriber Exclusive: February issue of Residency Program Alert now available
- Study: Shorter shifts reduces residents’ attentional failures
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- Editor’s note
- Nursing responsibilities for managing pain
- The consequences of an incomplete medical record
- Prevent dehydration with nursing interventions
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- E-mailed
-
- White Paper: Postacute CDI: An Introduction to Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals
- Use modifiers -59, -91 to "explain" duplicate codes
- Tim Porter-O'Grady sounds off
- Q: Can you clarify the reporting of dates on the plan of care for diagnosis onset and exacerbation?
- ICD-10-CM coma, stroke codes require more specific documentation
- Fracture coding in ICD-10-CM requires greater specificity
- Eight tips to improve MRI throughput
- Searched