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Tuesday, December 7, 2021
 

News Headlines

What’s actually driving safe healthcare?

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine released Crossing the Quality Chasm, a landmark report that signaled a new era in the healthcare industry’s view of patient care quality. Fast forward 20 years, and healthcare systems are still coming to grips with the report’s conclusion that clinicians must look beyond the one-on-one relationship between caregiver and patient and toward a more holistic healthcare journey.

Our healthcare landscape is evolving day by day. Members, patients, consumers, and caregivers expect more from the healthcare system than ever before.

CMS suspends enforcement of vaccine mandate for healthcare workers

CMS has joined with OSHA in suspending its mandate for COVID-19 vaccination of healthcare workers, but says hospitals are welcome to enforce the requirement voluntarily.

 

OSHA extends public comment on COVID-19 vaccine rule

Didn’t have time to gather your thoughts yet on OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) requiring vaccination and testing for employers with 100 or more employees? You can still offer up your two cents!

OSHA has extended the public comment period until January 19, 2022. (The original comment deadline was January 4.)

 

 

Newsletter Articles

Hello everyone. 

Starting this month, www.accreditationqualitycenter.com will be home to three new healthcare safety and regulatory newsletters. 

  • Healthcare Life Safety Compliance
  • Healthcare Safety Leader
  • Medical Environment Update

Healthcare Safety Leader comes free to Basic Members.

Healthcare Life Safety Compliance and Medical Environment Update come with a Platinum membership, or can be read as a singular subscription. 

Please contact custserv@blr.comwith any questions about how to sign up for or access the new newsletters. And check your email for more information on the many exciting changes coming to AQCC in 2022!

 

Mental health over the holidays: A tough time for patients and providers
Source: Patient Safety Monitor Journal

The holidays are a stressful time for many people, even without the added burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), increased alcohol and substance use, and increased political polarization. A 2014 National Alliance on Mental Illness study showed that 64% of people with mental illness report holidays make their conditions worse.

That stress isn’t limited to patients; it affects healthcare workers as well. Most readers will be able to come up with a couple of sources of tension—such as money and gifts, familial and interpersonal relationships, or travel and work.

Deadlines for maternal health drills, education at hand
Source: Inside Accreditation & Quality

Conduct your drills for maternal hemorrhage and maternal severe hypertension/preeclampsia by the end of 2021. Be sure they include a multidisciplinary team to debrief and evaluate how well you performed.

Staff education and orientation on procedures to handle those emergencies will be expected by January 2022.

Set to take effect in July 2020 but delayed six months by the COVID-19 pandemic, The Joint Commission (TJC) has signaled it is expecting hospitals to be caught up on their maternal health standards as surveys go forward.

The two Provision of Care standards, which together feature 13 elements of performance (EP), were prompted by national concerns about worsening maternal morbidity and mortality rates, especially among women of color or from at-risk population.

Asking the wrong safety questions
Source: Medical Environment Update

Many years ago, I was hired to perform a safety audit for a laboratory. As I walked through one department, an employee asked what I was doing. When I remarked that I was looking for safety issues to keep her safe, she asked, “What are you keeping me safe from?” It was the right question. This employee was working in a lab where there were several safety violations and she didn’t notice any of them. Was it a lack of education? Was it a product of a poor lab safety culture? Why didn’t she see the danger she was in?

Recovery: Lessons and observations after earthquakes
Source: Healthcare Safety Leader

A key element of an emergency preparedness plan is assessing how the staff and facility handled the disaster at hand and what lessons were learned for the next event.

In July 2019, after three earthquakes in two days, including a 7.1 magnitude temblor that was the largest earthquake in California in two decades, Ridgecrest Regional Hospital in Ridgecrest, California, had several takeaways, said Stephanie Meeks, MBA, HACP, the hospital’s emergency management and regulatory compliance manager.

Smoke barriers, blocked fire extinguishers continue to be problematic
Source: Healthcare Life Safety Compliance

Develop a protocol for any above-ceiling work, schedule weekly inspections of eyewash stations, and ensure that fire extinguishers are not blocked.

Those actions might steer you clear of common deficiencies found by surveyors from The Joint Commission (TJC), said Herman A. McKenzie, MBA, CHSP, director of engineering for TJC’s Standards Interpretation Group during the accreditor’s 2021 Executive Briefing.

The briefing was the first held by TJC since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and took place virtually over three days in mid-September.

 

Is all of your team in the know?

Our free weekly e-newsletters can keep your team abreast of up-to-date industry information; Including expert analysis where you need it most.

 

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Analyzing the Hospital Life Safety Survey, Fourth Edition

Life safety expert and independent consultant Brad Keyes, CHSP, provides a practical, strategic approach to the life safety survey process. He walks you through a room-by-room, floor-by-floor analysis of the life safety measures you must have in place to avoid costly citations. The book simplifies Joint Commission standards and CMS requirements and focuses on ways to pass your next life safety survey.

Learn more!

 

What is the Accreditation & Quality Compliance Center

The Accreditation & Quality Compliance Center is your home for all things accreditation and patient safety. Brimming with content for free and premium subscribers alike, this site is your center for hospital excellence. 

  • News Articles
  • Expert Analysis
  • Advanced and Beginner Toolkits
  • Online Forums
  • Crosswalks
  • And More!

Visit us at accreditationqualitycenter.com

 

Contact the Editor

Brian Ward, Associate Editor

bward@hcpro.com