Find a pharmacist, provider, or infection preventionist (IP) with a good grounding in antibiotic stewardship to tackle the responsibilities and requirements set out in six new hospital survey tags recently announced by CMS. Better yet, form a team of those experts.
With monkeypox cases climbing in each state, sometimes dramatically, hospitals should be creating and implementing a plan that includes education of both staff and patients, say experts.
Use the July 11 CMS memo reminding hospitals of their obligations under the federal EMTALA law as a good opportunity to review policies and to educate doctors, nurses, and other personnel on requirements for caring for emergent patients who are pregnant or experiencing pregnancy loss.
CMS issued several Quality, Safety & Oversight Group (QSO) memos in late May and early June, including two updating COVID-19 survey requirements and another updating the State Operations Manual Appendix L.
Standardize how your hospital manages its medical supplies to ensure that they are safely stored, updated, and available when needed. Also be sure to approve policies, procedures, plans, and related documents as required—even amid a long-term emergency.
Review your hospital’s practices for storing sterile devices and supplies now that three of the four hospital accrediting organizations (AO) have recently cited concerns about improper storage.
CMS approved The Joint Commission’s (TJC) hospital accreditation program for just another three years. If not for the pandemic, that time span might have been longer.
The updated infection control risk assessment (ICRA) tool for construction, renovation, and operations might be longer, but it is more user-friendly and eliminates some of the guesswork from the old version, say consultants and users in the field.
