Accreditation

Pay attention to alarms and life safety equipment

Accreditation Connection, November 19, 2004

Many hospitals are good at checking the batteries in the ventilators, but forget the other equipment. This is what BOJ learned at JCR conference in Portland, ME, in October. Surveyors are finding batteries that are five years old and with 20% life. Be sure to store and check backup batteries, as well.

A source close with the JCAHO remembers a death in Denver about 10 years ago when a backup battery failed on a heart lung bypass machine. Investigators discovered through hospital records that the battery was unchecked.

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