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JCAHO to check emergency plans

Briefings on The Joint Commission, November 1, 2005

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Hospitals with 200 or more beds subject to interviews

Learning objectives: After reading this article, you will be able to

1. list potential scenarios the JCAHO may discuss during emergency management interviews

Surveyors will scrutinize emergency management and preparedness plans for hospitals with more than 200 beds beginning in 2006, a JCAHO official said September 13.

Surveyors will meet with a hospital's emergency management committee for two to four hours at the hospital's incident command post, Standards Interpretation Group Engineer Jerry Gervais, CHFM, CHSP, told attendees during the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services Third Annual Statewide Partners' Conference on Public Health and Hospital Preparedness in Milwaukee.

"This is not, 'We're going to sit down and talk about this for 10 minutes,' " Gervais said. "We're going to be at this for a while."

Tracing emergency plans

A surveyor will interview members of the emergency management team and review plans to handle emergencies, Gervais said. All emergency personnel or their designated backups should be present during the interview, he said.

The bulk of the emergency preparedness meeting will occur when the surveyor picks a scenario to review with the team and interviews hospital staff about how they would respond to such an incident and what their roles would be, Gervais said.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Briefings on The Joint Commission.

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