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Why a ’restless’ George Mills left Joint Commission for a professional services firm

Healthcare Life Safety Compliance, November 1, 2017

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'I was frustrated that we haven't been moving the needle much on compliance with these critical areas,' says the former engineering director

After announcing his departure from The Joint Commission, a key figure in standards interpretation spoke candidly about his reasons for leaving the healthcare accrediting organization to take a new job with the Chicago-based professional services firm JLL.

George Mills, MBA, FASHE, CEM, CHFM, CHSP, who had served as director of engineering since The Joint Commission established its engineering department six years ago, resigned from the post effective October 9, 2017. He had worked for the organization about 14 years in total, counting a two-year stint in the 1990s. But the time had come, he says, to find a more hands-on opportunity to help healthcare organizations manage their facilities effectively.

"This winter, I started reflecting back on the previous dozen years or so," Mills says. "I was frustrated that we haven't been moving the needle much on compliance with these critical areas like ventilation and whatnot. So I became sort of restless, I guess, is the best way to put it, where I started wondering if there was a different venue or a different mechanism that I could get involved in to maybe make a greater impact on healthcare in the physical environment."

Mills, who returned to The Joint Commission in 2005 after working for the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and Aramark, says his overarching goal has been to reduce the number of physical environment findings during surveys by helping organizations understand and comply with the Life Safety (LS) and Environment of Care (EC) standards.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Healthcare Life Safety Compliance.

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