• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

EC.4.13: It's all about communication

Emergency Management Alert, January 7, 2008

The Joint Commission's new standard EC.4.13 states that "the organization establishes emergency communications strategies." The new items include: 

EP #2-Communicating information to staff members once response efforts begin
EP #4-Communicating information to external authorities once response efforts begin
EP #5-Communicating with patients and their families during emergencies
EP #7-Communicating with vendors during emergencies

The Joint Commission also clarified some previously existing items. For example, under the old EC.4.10, EP #7 stated that emergency plans should have "processes for notifying staff when emergency response measures are initiated." Now, under EC.4.13, EP #1 says more directly that a hospital "plans for notifying staff when emergency response measures are initiated."

In practical terms, surveyors will not just want to view your emergency plans, but see them in action, says Zach Goldfarb, EMT-P, CHSP, CEM, president of Incident Management Solutions, Inc., in East Meadow, NY. For instance, surveyors are likely to go over backup communications plans and put hospitals to the test by making them show radio gear and other hardware that emergency plans call for. Then they may hit the halls and quiz employees about how to operate the gear and how the equipment would be used in the event the main hospital communications systems go down.

"They will want to see [whether] you really understand it and can operationalize" emergency communication techniques, Goldfarb says.

Source: Adapted from "New EC.4.13 expands hospital emergency communications provisions," from Briefings on Hospital Safety, January 2008, available through www.hospitalsafetycenter.com.

• Comment
• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive

Comments