Author Archive for Steve MacArthur
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 smacarthur@greeley.com.
Hurry up and wait for The Joint Commission at the 39-month mark
There’s been a lot of discussion (almost reaching the level of consternation, I dare say) in various forums about The Joint Commission’s survey schedule for this year, and it does appear that visits from our esteemed Chicago friends are in many instances sliding past the triennial survey anniversaries (and not even a card!).
The reasons for this are likely [more]
Bimonthly safety committee meetings are no longer mandated in the EC standards
You may remember an environment of care requirement in the past that mandated safety committee meetings occur at least bimonthly.
That specific requirement under the old EC.9.20 [more]
You aren’t mandated to develop departmental disaster plans
There is no Joint Commission requirement for you to have department-level emergency management plans, unless you have determined through your drilling and evaluation process that there are sufficient complexities to warrant that additional level of planning.
Based on Joint Commission standards, the only requirement is for each organization [more]
Don’t trust rated fire doors with visible damage
I was on a chat group recently and someone asked about a center stairwell door with a broken wood strip on the edge and fire insulation foam showing.
A strict code interpretation says [more]
BMP and a tale of hiding in plain sight
Over the past few weeks, in doing client work, a number of folks have been bemoaning the departure of The Joint Commission’s building maintenance program (BMP) as a means of ensuring Life Safety Code compliance.
And of course there have been rumors of the BMP returning, [more]
The mythical annual EC report to leadership
Despite a commonly held myth, there is not now, nor has there ever been, an environment of care (EC) requirement for a “report” to leadership.
There is, and has been for some time, a requirement for [more]
Keeping tabs on glutaraldehyde sneaking back in
A word of advice relative to conducting safety rounds: Sometimes a little due diligence will help keep things on the straight and narrow.
Lately in my client work, I’ve been running into glutaraldehyde-based disinfectants [more]
Generic ID badges are okay for medical students in your hospital
Some of my colleagues and I were talking recently about what to do with ID badges for medical students who are only on site for a week or two.
You could make up a batch of generic student badges without [more]
Watch out for the ‘E’ in your RACE procedures
As you probably know, the RACE acronym standards for Rescue, Alarm, Confine, and Extinguish/Evacuate.
That last part about what exactly “E” stands for may have some bearing on how surveyors [more]
ILSMs are more than just construction project buffers
The practical application of interim life safety measures (ILSM) does not begin and end with construction or renovation projects. Rather, ILSMs should be considered (not necessarily implemented) for Life Safety Code (LSC) deficiencies in general.
Any time you have an LSC deficiency, [more]
