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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June 2007 (Volume 15, Issue 6)	view entire issue

NIMS deadline looms for funding
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is a federal initiative joining together hospitals and emergency responders across jurisdictions. If your hospital receives certain federal preparedness grants, then NIMS is mandatory. "NIMS integration has been quite a challenge for hospitals," said Melinda Stibal, RN, administration director of emergency and trauma services at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FL.

Don't park your wheeled computers within unit egress corridors
Battery-powered, portable computers-some hospitals are now in the habit of calling them workstations on wheels (WOW)-help facilitate electronic patient charting. They represent the cutting edge of wireless technology, giving everyone in the building access to real-time updates on patients' conditions. They also pose a dilemma for safety officers: WOWs need to be accessible to clinicians at a moment's notice. The computers also must charge at wall outlets when they're off duty.

Tackle your spreadsheet PFIs before September 1
The Joint Commission requires plans for improvement (PFI) to be filed electronically on a hospital's extranet connection with the accreditor. More than likely, your hospital files new PFIs this way. Originally, ongoing PFIs from 2006 and before also were to be entered electronically. But converting to The Joint Commission's system proved to require labor-intensive data entry for hospitals with older PFIs marooned in databases, in Excel spreadsheets, or on paper.

Ingrained education readied workers for disaster
It's one thing to fine-tune your tornado plan after a solid drill. It's quite another to have the experience of living through an actual twister tearing through your building. Although safety committee members would never want to test their storm strategy that way, the staff of Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, GA, learned firsthand how its plan worked after a tornado hit the facility March 1. All of the patients and employees survived, says Susie Fussell, the hospital's vice president of nursing, who also is in charge of risk management

A communications center can handle many functions
Editor's note: Last month HSA looked at how hospitals can design and build a new public safety communications center. In this issue, we take a look at the different functions a communications center can handle in hospitals. A properly designed public safety communications center can perform a wide variety of functions, depending on the needs of the hospital, says Anthony N. Potter, CHE, CHPA-F, CPP. When planning a communications center, it's important that security directors think about the functions they plan to run from this security hub, says Potter, the director of public safety at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC.

Other recently-published articles from Hospital Safety Center:

Avoid violence in the emergency department

Hospital finds life safety, disaster prep reviews helpful

Ring in 2009 with a better emergency preparedness plan

There is a familiar feel to DNV’s safety standards

Healthcare’s "dirty little secret" can create a big security challenge

Ten tips to prepare for a surge in pediatric patients

Specialty hospital recovers after document slipups

Hospitals live through Ike and Gustav and tell you what they learned about emergency preparations

Peel apart the distinctions of the 2009 EC standards

Upcoming EtO sterilizer rule takes effect in December

Organize disaster drills with a new, free government tool

For two hospitals, moving patients to new buildings offers a chance to fine-tune their evacuation plans

Patient suicides thrust prevention into a harsh spotlight

New clarifications, changed wording create challenges in 2009 life safety chapter

Ten ways to boost the value of your safety committee

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