Safety

EC tracer is now part of formal survey agenda, says internal Joint Commission guide

Hospital Safety Connection, February 4, 2009

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As we first reported in Mac’s Safety Space on Tuesday, an internal guide given to surveyors by The Joint Commission indicates that EC tracers are now a formal part of the EC and emergency management session during accreditation visits.
 
Meanwhile, the familiar emergency management tracer, which was part of EC session activities in years past for hospitals, will now be conducted during regular tracer activity outside of the EC session, according to the internal Surveyor Survey Activity Guide, a portion of which HCPro obtained.
 
A potential concern is that the wording of the internal Surveyor Survey Activity Guide differs from the publicly posted Survey Activity Guide that hospital managers and others can download from The Joint Commission’s Web site. The latter document doesn’t mention a specific EC tracer will be conducted during the EC session, and still shows the emergency management tracer as part of the EC session.
 
We asked The Joint Commission’s media office this week about the differing language between the guides, and we’ll update you when we hear back.
 
Look for more details in an upcoming issue of Briefings on Hospital Safety, which is part of all subscriptions to the Hospital Safety Center. Also, Steve MacArthur offers further thoughts about this topic in today’s Mac’s Safety Space posting below.



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