Joint Commission offers guidance, but no mandates, for patient-owned items
Many of you deal with patient-owned equipment, such as hair dryers, coming into the hospital.
The Joint Commission published an FAQ on this topic last year, and this is one of those instances in which, in opening the risk assessment door, the FAQ provides just enough semi-specific information to confuse matters.
My first piece of advice in working through this would be to include someone from your risk management office and perhaps even your property insurer — you want to be sure that you involve the primary stakeholders in the process.
At that point, apply risk criteria you develop to each device type and ensure that you don’t have anything that would fall under medical equipment management.
The tenor of the conversation should be indicative of the questions outlined in the FAQ. Remember, The Joint Commission doesn’t tell you how to do something, who should be responsible, etc. Surveyors will evaluate whether you are in compliance with your policy, with the caveat that it behooves you to develop a response strategy should you have an incident involving a patient-owned device.
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 
William Hyman | Oct 22, 2009 | Reply
I’m not sure if the implication of this is that it would be better if TJC did dictate policy so that thinking at the local level would be unnecessary, and certainty would be achieved even if it wasn’t necessarily rational or applicable to the local situation. At the hospital level do we want flexibility and the opportunity to exercise our own judgement and set our own policy, or do just want the TJC to tell us exactly what to. Prescription or principle, what do we want?