Tread carefully on the new fire watch interpretation
As you may have read already, The Joint Commission has updated its approach to fire watches by stating that fire watches would generally only be necessary during unscheduled alarm or sprinkler system disruptions.
From a consultative standpoint, I advise you to read the interpretation carefully in Perspectives and to be very conservative in its application until we find out how CMS is going to deal with this.
My fear is that in its haste to “save the world,” The Joint Commission’s Standards Interpretations Group is liberally interpreting the Life Safety Code (LSC) without first having conferred with CMS.
If that is the case, then I would think that the powers that be at The Joint Commission are not going to look very favorably at this if CMS decides this is not an acceptable interpretation of the LSC’s fire watch rules. This could lead to folks in the hospitals being left open to get hammered by CMS if they adopt The Joint Commission’s policy.
About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a consultant for The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro. He brings 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is contributing editor for Briefings on Hospital Safety. Contact Steve at 
Charles Workman | Jun 18, 2009 | Reply
HCPro,
Most of our hospitals are following the directions of a local Fire Marshall , we refer to as, the local AHJ. Upon their visits, they are really impressed on our knowledge of the Life Safety Code and kindly request; where is your International Fire Code?
The IFC most are using is the 2003, has a section 901.7.4 for a “Preplanned Impairment Program”. The local AHJ will use this for preplanned shutdowns of the fire alarm or fire suppression systems. Under the IFC for fire watches 901.7, it clearly describes the fire watch, but does not put a timeline on the duration.
Here in the hospitals, we on many occasions must follow the most frequent and most concerned AHJ; most of the time it is the local AHJ.
The Joint Commission may have pointed out something we should have been looking at all along, If CMS walks in and questions why this was not followed for a preplanned shutdown; a fire watch for a period of shutdown of more than 4 hours in a 24 hour period, if the guidelines in the IFC are followed as per contacting the AHJ; 901.7.4, everything should be just fine.