DNV has announced that it will conduct its annual NIAHO^® surveys remotely at least through the end of February. The triennial onsite surveys will continue onsite.

In a recent study of Medicare beneficiaries during the coronavirus pandemic, racial and ethnic disparities in mortality were found in COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality disparities widened in non-COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Earlier U.S. research has documented racial and ethnic healthcare disparities during the pandemic. For example, an earlier study found that death rates linked to COVID-19 for Black and Hispanic populations have been about double the death rates for White populations.

Supreme Court justices hearing emergency arguments about an injunction stopping enforcement of a CMS interim final rule requiring hospital and other healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 seemed to lean toward the side of CMS on Friday.

Newsletter: Inside Accreditation & Quality

The Joint Commission (TJC) ended the year with a flurry of reminders about new and revised standards for 2022, many of which had either been announced before or were otherwise expected.

They include a rewritten Emergency Management (EM) chapter, released on December 17.

By late December, TJC had at least 20 new or revised standards on its prepublication page online, including requirements for certifications as well as a variety of healthcare programs, hospitals among them.

Many of the new and revised standards will remain in prepublication status until they become effective. Some are not effective until April or July.

Newsletter: Patient Safety Monitor Journal

Do you ever think about how you think, or come to conclusions, or make decisions? It’s a Philosophy 101 question, but in the healthcare context it means examining how we make assumptions, skip steps, ignore details, and use flawed reasoning when diagnosing or treating a patient. And all those things, of course, have an impact on patient outcomes.

This isn’t a condemnation of healthcare workers—everyone subconsciously uses mental shortcuts in their daily decision making, says Bradley T. Truax, MD, principal consultant of the Truax Group. Otherwise, we’d be overloaded by thousands of daily choices, like the estimated 226.7 daily decisions we make on food alone. But when using those shortcuts, there are lower stakes in choosing between steak or salad than in making a diagnosis or coming up with a treatment plan.

Newsletter: Healthcare Safety Leader

Check manufacturer’s instructions for use (IFU) as well as nationally recognized standards when updating your policy on the regular maintenance and cleaning of washing machines and dryers used for patient belongings.

Surveyor concerns will be about infection control (IC), says Tanya Peduto, quality assurance & performance improvement coordinator and assistant quality manager at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia.

Newsletter: Healthcare Life Safety Compliance

While there are many Life Safety Code^® (LSC) violations identified throughout an accreditation survey, many of them are “low hanging fruit” and some of the most common findings, according to Lance Woolf, MBA, CHSP, former life safety surveyor for The Joint Commission. Woolf currently is the director of life safety compliance at facilities compliance solutions provider Soleran, located in Overland Park, Kansas.

Newsletter: Medical Environment Update

In the 1964 classic movie Mothra versus Godzilla (released in the U.S. as Godzilla vs. the Thing), a giant egg is washed ashore in Japan after a hurricane. Godzilla finds the egg and tries to break it, but when it hatches, twin giant worms are released that spell disaster for the title monster. Godzilla ends up covered in webbing and falling helplessly into the sea. He never expected that kind of trouble from opening a simple egg.

Some lab safety stories are like that, too. An incident occurs due to an unsafe practice, and during the subsequent investigation, the safety officer discovers the practice is actually common. Someone’s specific safety question reveals a huge systemwide issue that could become a major project. Opening these cans (or eggs) of worms can happen, but the lab safety professional needs to be prepared for them.