ASHE may have “had it up to here” with CMS when it comes to damper testing

You can really sense the frustration that ASHE — and more precisely, that of Deputy Executive Director Doug Erickson — has with CMS these days. Just read the latest ASHE bulletin to its members about six-year damper testing and you’ll feel the bad vibes.

Back in July, ASHE announced in an alert that hospitals wanting to use six-year testing frequencies for smoke and fire dampers — as already allowed by the NFPA and Joint Commission — could seek a waiver from CMS as well. This conclusion was reportedly based on discussions between ASHE and CMS representatives.

It became clear very quickly, however, even on ASHE’s own listserv, that CMS wasn’t exactly on board with the waiver idea. In fact, CMS says it can’t issue a waiver to any hospital until an inspector issues a citation for a violation.

Fast forward to Monday afternoon, when ASHE issued its latest bulletin to members, acknowledging that, “Once the ASHE membership began making these proactive requests for waivers, the CMS system came to a screeching halt as there is no mechanism for the CMS state authorities or regional offices to process a waiver for something that has not been cited during a survey.”

ASHE and CMS are continuing to talk about the matter, but ASHE is also preparing to go above the agency’s head if necessary by encouraging members to contact lawmakers. (ASHE members can read these bulletins by logging on at www.ashe.org.)

On the positive side, ASHE has had good fortune in the past with pushing environment of care and life safety issues to the forefront, and Erickson is popular with the ASHE crowd. But CMS is a slow-moving machine gummed up by red tape, and asking that machine to change course will be an effort.