Hope to see you at the ASHE conference next week

I’ll be traveling out to Anaheim this weekend to attend the annual ASHE conference August 2-5. If you’re also going, stop by booth 462 in the exhibit hall to say hello.

Joining me there will be Brad Keyes, life safety consultant at the Greeley Company and contributing technical editor for our Healthcare Life Safety Compliance newsletter. I always get a kick out of how many facility and safety professionals remember Keyes from his days as a Joint Commission life safety surveyor.

I hope to post some blog items while at the ASHE show, so watch here for any updates.

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]

Walking free and clear into a locked behavioral unit

I couldn’t help but think of all the security officers out there when I heard a story from a friend over the weekend who went to visit a patient at a locked behavioral unit in a suburban hospital.

As my friend approached the unit, someone coming out of it held open the door for her, so [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]

ASHE: You need to file waivers with CMS for six-year damper tests

ASHE sent a notice to its members Friday indicating that if hospitals want to observe six-year damper testing — as allowed by The Joint Commmission and the 2007 editions of NFPA 80, Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, and NFPA 105, Installation of Smoke Door Assemblies — they’ll need to apply for a waiver from CMS.

CMS doesn’t formally recognize the six-year frequencies, due to the fact the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code, which CMS enforces, references older editions of NFPA 80 and 105, ASHE said.

I’ll try to get confirmation about this from CMS, but I have no reason to doubt what ASHE is saying. The full notice is only available to ASHE members.

Questions raised at one hospital about adequate PPE supplies

Hi everyone, it’s Scott Wallask. My colleagues over at OSHA Healthcare Advisor blogged this week about a hospital that was butting heads with some employees regarding personal protective equipment.

The workers don’t believe the hospital has supplied enough PPE, which raises the question of what would happen to the absentee rate at this facility if a pandemic occurred. The hospital disagrees with the employees’ contention. It’s a though provoking blog post.

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]