All Entries Tagged With: "Mac’s sense of humor"

And so the end is near…

While I generally try to stay away from too much in the way of personal notes, I would like to beg your indulgence for a few moments to recognize the changing of the palace guard at Mac’s Safety Space.

I have had the distinct pleasure of working with Scott Wallask for almost a decade and he has finally decided to grow up and see [more]

Blanket warmers and other tales of the temperature wars + a free tool

At this point, it appears that the concern with the management of blanket warmer temperatures still represents a stumbling block for some folks (folks who, I might add, have spent a fair amount of time trolling the Web, periodically stumbling on this not-quite-so-noble blog in search of guidance).

One of my frequently employed aphorisms is that everyone gets to make their own way in the world, and the issue of blanket warmers is a shining example of [more]

From infection control to South Park . . .

CMS is trying to tie hospital-acquired infections to reimbursement. Of course, ratcheting down on reimbursement only [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]

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: All different and all the same – the dichotomy of the safety community

Howdy folks.

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who attended the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium in Las Vegas, especially my esteemed colleagues and presenters: Dean Samet, Joe Cappiello, Marge McFarlane, and my Greeley cohort, Brad Keyes. Your presentations were illuminating and everything one could expect — props to all of you. We are all the better [more]

Symposium coverage: A call to arms with emergency preparedness

From the Las Vegas desert I bring you great tidings of opportunity.

Joe Cappiello’s presentation this morning at the 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium revolves around a discussion of how we in healthcare can better integrate, cooperate, and thus be able to “respondetate” more effectively with our community partners.

As part of a quick recap of the latest H1N1 developments (basically we’re in a very close monitoring situation), Joe touched on the topic [more]

Dark cloud, silver lining for H1N1

Well, the H1N1 swine flu panic seems to be subsiding somewhat, though I have no doubt that many of you are still managing the worried well to one degree or another (please let us know how you’re doing – shoot me a message on the blog, it’s your community and we want to know you’re keeping the faith).

That said, I have the good fortune this week to be spending some time in the Orlando area and I think there may be a bit of silver lining [more]

Mac’s MacGyver instinct about behavioral risks

A reader on HCPro’s Patient Safety Talk listserv asked about maintaining safe environments in behavioral health settings.

I mentioned to her that the important thing to keep track of as you assess the environment and identify improvement opportunities is to be sure that you are also identifying mitigation strategies for those improvements you can’t implement right away. [more]

I think the new couch looks best over by the wall… on second thought, maybe in front of that window…

Well, the never-ending drama of now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t in the world of strategic compliance marches on. Fortunately, my brothers and sisters in safety, the announcement of revised Joint Commission standards is virtually without impact for you (unless of course, you were otherwise occupied when these “changes” first graced our world — if you were, good on you, they’re just as meaningless as they were then).

I’ll default to my CMS logic in noting that none of the changes should have been a surprise to anyone being accredited for the purposes of bellying up to the Medicare/Medicaid bar. These were existing requirements, and, oddly enough, very much in keeping with an appropriately managed, comprehensive safety program, which I know you have because you tune into this blog on a regular basis (I certainly hope it helps, at any rate). [more]