All Entries in the "Emergency management" Category

Five reasons to attend the Hospital Safety Center Symposium

Hello, it’s Scott Wallask logging in. There’s still time to make plans to attend the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium May 14-15 in Las Vegas, and to nudge those of you on the fence, here are five great reasons to join us: [more]

Police chief: Hospital shooting may reflect society’s overall mood

Hi everyone, it’s Scott Wallask. It was very interesting to hear the police chief of Long Beach, CA, wonder out loud whether a double-murder-suicide at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center — and other mass shootings this year — are a sign of the tough economic times.

During the shooting last Thursday [more]

With emergency inventory planning, don’t just focus on the numbers

Maintaining an accurate inventory of resources and assets for disaster planning is clearly an important process because you need to know what your capacities are during emergencies.

What this requires is a thoughtful process for managing the inventory during an emergency. It’s not so much about knowing [more]

EOP Webcast on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Eastern

There’s still time to register for Tuesday’s Webcast, “Five Steps To Strengthen Your Emergency Operations Plan.”

The progam begins at 1 p.m. Eastern and will feature presentations by Jim Kendig, vice president of safety, security, and clinical/courier transportation at Health First in Melbourne, FL, and Chris Bellone, emergency preparedness coordinator at Rockford (IL) Health System.

Why and when to communicate patient information with other sites

Someone asked me about my thoughts relative to Joint Commission emergency management standard EM.02.02.01, EP 11.

EP 11 establishes the expectation that in the event of a fairly widespread event (in terms of casualties and fatalities) that your emergency operations plan will have a process to communicate the names of patients to other healthcare organizations in the area. [more]

I think the new couch looks best over by the wall… on second thought, maybe in front of that window…

Well, the never-ending drama of now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t in the world of strategic compliance marches on. Fortunately, my brothers and sisters in safety, the announcement of revised Joint Commission standards is virtually without impact for you (unless of course, you were otherwise occupied when these “changes” first graced our world — if you were, good on you, they’re just as meaningless as they were then).

I’ll default to my CMS logic in noting that none of the changes should have been a surprise to anyone being accredited for the purposes of bellying up to the Medicare/Medicaid bar. These were existing requirements, and, oddly enough, very much in keeping with an appropriately managed, comprehensive safety program, which I know you have because you tune into this blog on a regular basis (I certainly hope it helps, at any rate). [more]

Observers of emergency exercises under EM.03.01.03

I read a question on a listserv a short while back that asked how to address EM.03.01.03, EP 6 (the hospital designates an individual to observe emergency drills).

You really don’t have to identify this person in your emergency operations plan (EOP), unless it is somehow helpful to the organization to do so. Strictly speaking, your EOP should focus on the elements required to respond to an emergency, which generally doesn’t include consideration of how you plan test exercises. [more]

A closer look at The Joint Commission’s 96-hour FAQ

As you may have seen, The Joint Commission released some more FAQs earlier this month. One of them deals with the 96-hour provision under EM.02.01.01, EP 3 by reiterating that The Joint Commission doesn’t expect organizations to have 96-hour capabilities for emergency response efforts.

Rather, The Joint Commission wants each organization [more]

Listen now to a preview of HCPro’s upcoming Webcast, “Five Steps To Strengthen Your Emergency Operations Plan”

Hi, it’s Scott Wallask again. It seems like emergency operations plans (EOPs) have a lot of buzz these days, partially because The Joint Commission has left much of the design of an EOP up to hospitals.

To that end, HCPro is hosting a Webcast on April 14 at 1 p.m. Eastern called, “Five Steps To Strengthen Your Emergency Operations Plan.” We’ve got a free preview of the show [more]

The Joint Commission posts even more new FAQs

Hi, it’s Scott Wallask checking in quickly. I was on The Joint Commission’s Web site earlier today and saw that three new and/or revised FAQs had been posted last week dealing with [more]