All Entries in the "Emergency management" Category
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh preps for patient moves
Hi folks, it’s Scott Wallask. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh had a great idea as part of its preparation to move to a new facility in May. [more]
Training for gun incidents, from the latest Briefings on Hospital Safety
Hi folks, it’s Scott Wallask logging on today. Given that most hospitals aren’t using metal detectors at the entrance, it’s not a surprise that some visitors enter the facility carrying guns.
In the p. 1 story of our March issue of Briefings on Hospital Safety [more]
Digging at the root of The Joint Commission’s 96-hour principle
Regarding the 96-hour provision in EM.02.01.01, the purpose of this whole magillah (and The Joint Commission has done an absolutely poor job of explaining this to folks) is for each organization to determine at which point they can no longer safely continue to provide care. Based on this determination, the organization can make the decision to reduce services, partially evacuate, or fully evacuate while it is still safe to do so.
The big failure mode that was identified for facilities post-Katrina [more]
Emergency planning: Put the O in, take the M out, and shake it all about
How interesting: One of the big changes made in The Joint Commission’s emergency management standards is the need for an emergency operations plan (EOP). I recognize this change happened a little while ago in terms of the endless cycle of standards revisions, but I’ve been waiting for something (Godot, as it turns out) that explains in expectations as the result of these titular changes.
Yet if you look at the commission’s Survey Activity Guide for 2009, it refers to [more]
Listen to our free hospital safety audio conference online, any time
Hi everyone, it’s Scott Wallask checking in today. I’m happy to announce that we’ve posted a free online recording of our January 29 audio conference, “Hospital Safety in 2009: A Sneak Preview of HCPro’s 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium.”
You can listen [more]
If your emergency prep is good, don’t sweat Joint Commission survey guide changes
In looking over the scope and span of the EC/emergency management survey process as outlined in The Joint Commission’s internal Surveyor Survey Activity Guide, there appears to be a possibility that you good safety folks will be spending a little more time in direct hand-to-hand combat with the surveyors.
While it’s not quite clear to the crystal, it does appear that the emergency management tracer activity [more]
Escalating disaster drill = pushing your limits
To anyone who’s wondered what the term “escalating drill” means in terms of Joint Commission emergency management compliance, a few thoughts:
An escalating drill is an exercise with a scenario that grows increasingly complex. Say, for instance, we start out with a mass casualty incident scenario. [more]
Documentation question regarding The Joint Commission’s FAQs
As a quick follow up to my post last week about The Joint Commission’s updated FAQs, I wanted to discuss related documentation.
Remember those nifty little “D” icons in the EC, emergency management, and life safety standards that tell us what has to be documented? I don’t see ‘em on the FAQ page. [more]
New Joint Commission FAQs should prompt a critical review
I want to jump in with a couple of thoughts relative to the increased activity on the The Joint Commission’s Web site in the FAQ section — especially in the EC, emergency management, and life safety sections. There are nine new FAQs available for your viewing pleasure right now. Go check ‘em out (I’ll wait for you to come back).
Back? Good! I think you probably noticed that the topics are scattered across the spectrum. I’m not exactly sure what’s prompted this flurry (it is, after all, winter) of activity, but if you’ll allow me some extrapolation space, it may be that the FAQs have become a venue for moving physical environment compliance into the future. [more]
Mac reacts to the Hudson River plane crash . . . and birds
Kudos to the amazing (I daresay miraculous) response to last week’s jet crash in the Hudson. I was watching some of the footage on The Weather Channel and at first had a difficult time processing what had happened. It’s absolutely astonishing that there was no loss of life.
I haven’t had a chance to dig too deeply into the all the news reports, but I imagine there are at least a couple of New York area hospitals that can check off their Joint Commission influx drill requirement for the year (not that that’s how you want to do it). [more]
