HCPro.com: Hospital Safety Center

Health care facilities face new requirements by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) this year. Is your facility ready? Be prepared with Briefings on Hospital Safety, the monthly newsletter that's full of the latest information on environment of care standards as well how to comply with other agency regulations, including OSHA and the EPA.

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May 2008 (Volume 16, Issue 5)	view entire issue

Use renewed MRI focus to verify your risk reductions
By now, most of you have read The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event Alert about MRI safety. The alert, in part, offers advice on how to prevent injuries and deaths to patients and employees within the strong magnetic fields surrounding MRI equipment. Sentinel Event Alerts aren't new standards, but The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) wants you to review the alerts and consider their recommendations, as surveyors may ask about them. If you're not on top of the recommendations, develop a plan to do so or have a wellreasoned alternative, says Elizabeth Di GiacomoGeffers, RN, MPH, CNAA, BC, a healthcare consultant at Di Giacomo-Geffers and Associates in Trabuco Canyon, CA.

Electronics recycling may require extra vigilance
Hospitals replace a lot of electronic gear. The challenge for those of you in charge of environmental policies is to account for the disposition of all the lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, and other assorted hazardous or toxic wastes found in discarded electronics. On the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) laws apply to hospitals dumping electronics, says Sarah Westervelt, e-waste project coordinator at Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle-based electronics recycling watchdog group.

Ways to prepare your hospital for the 'right' disasters
Hurricanes aren't likely to hit Alaska, and blizzards don't commonly blanket Florida with 2 ft. of snow. The difficult part of disaster preparation is evaluating the likelihood of scenarios and determining which emergencies to prepare for, given the limited resources most hospitals have. The Joint Commission's (formerly JCAHO) 2008 emergency management standards continue a recent trend of moving away from preparing for single events in favor of emphasizing a more comprehensive, all-hazards approach, says Maurice Ramirez, DO, CPF, CMC, CSP, a hospital consultant based in Kissimmee, FL.

Join the bandwagon for hospital security grant wish list
Two security associations are banding together to push Congress to authorize $500 million in grants to hospitals for upgrades in security hardware such as radio frequency identification, cameras, and access control systems. Representatives from the two groups-the Security Industry Association (SIA) and the International Association of Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS)-say that although the proposal is in its infancy, hospital safety and security managers can help it gain traction among legislators by showing support and drawing attention to the issue.

Other recently-published articles from Hospital Safety Center:

OSHA official: Keep an eye on laundry worker safety

Observing ADA rules harkens back to risk assessments

Beef up your 96-hour plan with these 10 pointers

Tune up policies to eliminate surgical smoke hazards

Join the bandwagon for hospital security grant wish list

Ways to prepare your hospital for the ’right’ disasters

Electronics recycling may require extra vigilance

Use renewed MRI focus to verify your risk reductions

Ensure your spring cleaning sends birds, rodents packing

Adopt these recordkeeping ideas for your EC efforts

OSHA clarifies its PPE requirements for phlebotomists

Help on hiring an emergency management coordinator

Hospital focus continues on disaster preparedness

Data-driven safety reports comb for every incident

Plug up potential legal liabilities in your disaster plans

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