All Entries in the "EC" Category

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]

Defibrillators are life support equipment, says The Joint Commission

If this ever-changing world in which we live in has got you down, you’ll be pleased to note that once again, a succulent pearl of wisdom has issued forth from The Joint Commission: What is the meaning of life (support equipment).

For some reason it appears that there has been much consternation and controversy over [more]

Staff must take the lead in preventing cylinders from falling

Last month, I wrote about The Joint Commission’s position on compressed gas cylinders — but wait, there’s more.

When it comes to these cylinders, the bottom line is whether your organization has eliminated the risk of cylinders falling and becoming damaged, or reduced the risk to its lowest potential.

Please remember if your staff [more]

Joint Commission scoring update effective July 1

Hi everyone, it’s Scott Wallask checking in. There are a series of EC and life safety scoring changes going into effect on July 1 that were just published by The Joint Commission.

I wrote a story about this for HCPro’s HealthLeaders Media site, which you can read for free.

Digging into The Joint Commission’s FAQ about compressed gas cylinders

On its FAQ Web page, The Joint Commission mentions nonflammable compressed gas cylinders as a function of ensuring that end users can identify whether a cylinder is full, partially full, or empty.

Curious thing, though — the FAQ title is “Labeling oxygen and other compressed gas cylinders,” even though there is no specific labeling requirement.

The Joint Commission is absolutely mum on [more]

It’s up to you to determine when to conduct medical equipment safety checks

As far as Joint Commission standards that address the frequency of electrical safety checks for medical devices, you will have difficulty finding any — because there are none.

The Joint Commission, under environment of care standard [more]

iPods and pacemaker interference – and how many downloaded songs does Mac have?

I did a quick Google search of “pacemakers and iPods,” and while there was some chatter back in 2007 that iPods could interfere with pacemakers, a great deal of effort was expended during 2008 in debunking that urban legend.

To me, the idea of iPod interference made absolutely no sense as the iPod’s output is very limited and the digital signal is transmitted directly to the earphones. There were a couple of articles that indicated [more]

Symposium coverage: Using near misses to your advantage

Marge McFarlane, owner of Superior Performance Consulting in Eau Claire, WI, is discussing environment of care education with attendees at the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium in Las Vegas this morning.

A great opportunity for eduation is [more]

Two approaches—or maybe more?—to thwarting latex balloons

Allergic reactions to latex balloons can be a problem for affected staff members.

I’ve seen two general strategies for this particular risk management challenge: [more]