All Entries Tagged With: "Emergency management"
OSHA’s big messages with new H1N1 compliance directive
Just a quick note that OSHA today posted a compliance directive that helps guide inspectors as they visit hospitals treating potential or confirmed H1N1 swine flu patients.
I think there are two broad messages to take out of the compliance directive: [more]
Don’t sacrifice patient comfort for drill realism
I was discussing emergency management scenarios involving a bomb threat and whether such exercises needed to include the movement of actual patients. [more]
After the Fort Hood shootings, Twitter proves useful for one hospital
For many people, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are frequently used to quote movie lines or discuss whether they had coffee or hair of the dog with their Corn Flakes. But from a professional standpoint, The Joint Commission is encouraging the use of social sites for emergency management purposes.
Thursday’s shootings at Fort Hood, TX, let one facility rev up its Twitter presence with useful updates and information. [more]
Be wary about using fire drills as emergency management tests
I was recently asked whether fire drills could count towards The Joint Commission’s requirements for emergency management tests under EM.03.01.03.
I suppose if you evaluated a fire drill to the extent called for under [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]
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]
Former Joint Commission VP among those appearing at our one-day emergency management conference
Joseph Cappiello
Get help analyzing your hospital’s disaster plans while also bolstering your professional development during HCPro’s Emergency Management Coordinator’s Workshop, which takes place October 26 in Atlanta.
Our experts for the program include:
- Joseph Cappiello, chair of Cappiello & Associates in Elmhurst, IL, and former vice president for accreditation field operations at The Joint Commission
- James Kendig, vice president of safety and security for Health First, Inc., based in Rockledge, FL
- Mary Russell, senior hospital project manager at the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Public Health Preparedness
Click here to read our speakers’ full bios and our show’s agenda.
Most of you are well prepared for disaster response, but there’s always the unpredictable event
I really think — this being my ever so humble opinion based on my observations — that most hospitals are adequately prepared to respond to the emergencies they have identified as being the most likely to occur.
That’s not to say there are not improvement opportunities, because there will always be [more]
The challenges that tie healthcare facilities back to 9/11
Back in 2001, I remember talking to quite a few hospital safety officers and emergency planners about the way the world had changed after 9/11. It wasn’t just the hijacked jets in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania — soon after, the nation was in the midst of anthrax attacks via the mail and there was also concern about potential smallpox bioterrorism.
Yet I re-read some of the articles I wrote at the time and was struck by [more]
