Safety Newsletters

Healthcare Life Safety Compliance Hospital Safety Center Medical Environment Update

Created exclusively for healthcare facility managers, plant operations professionals, and directors of engineering, this monthly 12-page, award-winning resource helps you comply with The Joint Commission’s Life Safety standards, NFPA codes, and related fire protection provisions. Written by Life Safety expert, Brad Keyes, CHSP, each issue is packed with analysis and advice on fire and life safety issues that’s easy to read and apply to your facility.

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Issue 5, May 2, 2020

• Lessons from pandemics past

  The test of our ability to keep the healthcare system running in the face of the coronavirus...

Issue 4, April 5, 2020

• Ensuring the power stays on

  The Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R. (Power Information Needed to Expedite Emergency Response) system monitors...

• Keyes Q&A: LED lighting, travel distance, drywall screws, testing frequencies

  Each month, Brad Keyes, CHSP, owner of Keyes Life Safety Compliance, answers your questions about...

• Massachusetts weighs hospital wayfinding regulation

  Law would mandate improved signage and security at hospital entrance  

• CMS updates its surveyors' manual for the first time in over a year

  CMS is revising its State Operations Manual (SOM) for hospitals in one of the first significant...

• CMS eliminates 2nd survey for psychiatric hospitals, to merge B-tags into SOMA

  CMS announced it is combining the interpretive guidelines that its surveyors use for psychiatric...

Issue 3, March 2, 2020 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• ECRI: 2020 health tech hazards

  Misuse of surgical staplers is the top medical technology hazard for 2020, according to the ECRI...

• Keyes Q&A: Sliding doors, hazardous rooms, hydrocollators, fire dampers

  Each month, Brad Keyes, CHSP, owner of Keyes Life Safety Compliance, answers your questions about...

• Examine your dialysis space to ensure room to separate infectious patients

  Hemodialysis is one of four areas The Joint Commission (TJC) says it’s increasing focus on...

• Dialysis tips

  Here are some tips from Kathleen Good, MSN, RN, a former surveyor with The Joint Commission and now...

• Becoming a High-Reliability Organization Through Shared Learning of Safety Events

  Nearly 20 years after the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err Is Human...

• Safety by design: Pediatrics

  Hospitals are designing pediatric facilities in ways that help children and families face medical...

• Touching eyes: Disinfecting ophthalmology devices

  The Quick Safety, Issue 49 advisory from The Joint Commission (TJC) was released in May 2019, and...

Issue 2, February 1, 2020 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Clarification: 1135 waivers, temporary suspension of rules during a disaster

  Joint Commission–accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals must have a process in...

• Keyes Q&A: Generator fuel testing, sprinklers in elevator pits, corridor walls

  Each month, Brad Keyes, CHSP, owner of Keyes Life Safety Compliance, answers your questions about...

• Environment of Care: What to Expect in the Upcoming Year

  This excerpt comes from the HCPro book, Environment of Care Compliance Manual, Sixth Edition.

• Fire safety may trump ligature risk, but surveyors likely will want both

  TJC's newest engineering director, Herman A. McKenzie, MBA, CHSP, told hospital leadership that...

• Creating a culture of safety

  The better alternative for keeping a medical clinic safe is to create an environment where...

• Suicide NPSG now applies to critical access hospitals

  Critical access hospitals (CAH) accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC) will be expected to...

Issue 1, January 5, 2020 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• How to make facility inspections easier

  Just because you’re not the hospital’s administrator or safety officer doesn’t...

• Ligature risk, infection control top concerns at Executive Briefings

  Widespread ligature risks, incomplete environmental risk assessments, and lack of a mitigation plan...

• Q&A: Smoke detectors, oxygen cylinder storage, sprinkler types, and remote power taps

  Each month, Brad Keyes, CHSP, owner of Keyes Life Safety Compliance, answers your questions about...

• Top EC problems include infection control, risk assessments, documentation

  Herman A. McKenzie, MBA, CHSP, the new director of TJC’s Department of Engineering, offered a...

• Top LS issues involve usual suspects: Sprinkler systems, means of egress

  Cables attached to sprinkler lines, dirty sprinkler heads, obstructions, and problems with escape...

• Healthcare Life Safety Compliance 2019 index

  If you need to review any topics, we’ve created this index of HLSC articles to help you...