New development: CMS now allows six-year damper testing in hospitals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memo to its state survey agencies that now formally allows hospitals to use six-year testing frequencies for fire and smoke dampers.

What’s that mean for hospitals? [more]

Doctor stabbed: When something goes wrong, security feels the heat

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston finds itself in the unenviable position of trying to deal with a pair of high-profile security incidents within the past nine days. [more]

OSHA raises the stakes in the N95 respirator debate

The October 20 edition of our free sister e-newsletter, OSHA Healthcare Connection, has generated a fair amount of what I like to think of as consternation.

At this point, I think most folks are familiar with the CDC coming down squarely on the side of N95 respirators versus surgical masks for use as personal protective equipment during our little H1N1 event.

I’ve heard from some folks [more]

Try a free sample of our customizable paper patients

After months of development, we’re happy to announce our new Emergency Preparedness Solutions series, which we think you’ll like.

The highlight for me, because it’s something I’ve wanted to see us publish for a long time, is a collection of 80 paper patients that are customizable to your hospital’s drill or triage efforts. [more]

Further thoughts on patient-owned equipment in the hospital

A quick follow-up to a post I made last week about patient-owned equipment coming into the hospital:

One thing you might want to consider relative to these types of devices is whether [more]

In halting mandatory flu shots, NY had to step back

For now, the war drums in New York state can stop beating. In an about-face, New York Governor David Paterson announced yesterday that healthcare workers in the state will no longer be required to receive seasonal or H1N1 flu vaccinations as a condition of employment.

Let’s be blunt: It’s hard to win a battle against nurses. They collectively fuel the engine that runs healthcare, and they also possess a powerful voice. Some nurses get flu shots, some don’t. What New York’s initial rule and subsequent backtracking show [more]

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. [more]

How leadership interacts with egress corridor storage

In my experience, I’m not sure that I could tie leadership directly to the problem of wheeled items parked in egress corridors.

However, it would certainly not be a stretch for a citation under [more]

CDC revisions continue to recommend N95 use, but acknowledge supply shortages

The CDC issued revised interim guidelines yesterday to protect healthcare workers from the H1N1 swine flu virus.

The biggest news is that the CDC continues to recommend that healthcare workers wear N95 respirators when [more]

Exit signs in mechanical rooms? It depends …

I was asked recently whether exit signs are required in mechanical rooms, as a hospital had received a citation from a Joint Commission surveyor concerning this matter.

There is no specific requirement in the Life Safety Code for mechanical spaces to have exit signs. Moving on to The Joint Commission’s standards, [more]