All Entries Tagged With: "Sentinel Event Alert"
Hospital fire reveals several truths about emergency preparedness
There’s an update on a fire at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, CT, in this week’s issue of our free sister e-newsletter, Emergency Management Alert.
As a consultant, I frequently ask folks what kind of scenarios they are using to comply with EM.03.01.03, EP 3, which mandates an emergency response exercise, including an escalating scenario in which the hospital is unable to be supported by the local community.
One of the truisms I’ve observed over time is that [more]
August 26, 2009 | Steve MacArthur | Comments 0
Curiously, the EC standards aren’t mentioned in the new Sentinel Event Alert
I saw that The Joint Commission published a new Sentinel Event Alert about preventing technology-related errors.
In reviewing the Alert, The Joint Commission takes some pains to identify standards and performance elements that already exist in this regard, but they don’t mention EC.02.04.01, EP 1, which states the “hospital solicits input from individuals who operate and service equipment when it selects and acquires medical equipment.”
Now, in the Alert, one of the issues that could result in a threat to care and patient safety is when clinicians and other staff are not included in the planning process. To be honest, my first thought was that they were mostly going after medical equipment, though it does appear that this Alert is more aimed at information management and technology improvements.
That said, there is certainly a practical application to this Alert relative to the coordination of medical equipment and peripheral technologies, especially as devices and technology become more and more inextricably linked.
Not that you would ever encounter a surveyor that expanded upon the printed scope of a Sentinel Event Alert into unexpected waters, but if we consider the advice contained in the Alert as best practices, there may be a tacit obligation from the EC end to at least consider some of the identified risks.
After all, it’s not about doing what someone tells us to do, it is about using any available resource to ensure that we are maintaining our care environments in a risk-free, or at least risk-neutral, manner. Can anyone say risk assessment? Sure you can! I suspect I’ll be talking about risk assessments during my session at our 3rd Annual Hospital Safety Center Symposium in May.
December 17, 2008 | Steve MacArthur | Comments 0
