As promised, surveys are resuming across the country. And as promised, one of the main items of discussion is how well organizations have responded to the coronavirus pandemic—including their handling of infection control (IC) and implementation of long-term emergency management (EM) operations...
Expect The Joint Commission (TJC) to get tougher on water management and infection control, preconstruction risk assessments, workplace violence protections, and kitchen safety. Don’t be surprised if TJC Life Safety Code®(LSC) surveyors go into places you may not have seen...
Q: When an employee completes the OSHA Respirator Medical Evaluation Questionnaire (Appendix C to section 1910.134) and answers yes to one or more of the questions, they need a medical...
The Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP), the oldest CMS-approved hospital accreditation program in the nation, has merged with the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) in a move designed to expand both organizations’ reach in the compliance world.
With temperatures dropping and snow on the way in many states, hospitals and clinics need to create a checklist of winter safety items. We asked Brad Keyes, CHSP, owner of Keyes Life Safety Compliance, about things that should be on that checklist from a life safety standpoint.
Surveys are resuming in areas deemed safe for on-site visits even as the coronavirus pandemic continues its waves of surge and decline. With COVID-19 still on everyone’s mind, expect to be asked for documentation of inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) of critical systems and to show...
Be prepared to explain to surveyors how you will catch up with any inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) of non-critical systems that had been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Update logs and records for any ITM done on critical systems, and make sure you can show that...
It’s not easy being an accrediting organization (AO) these days. DNV GL Healthcare has been in the business of deeming U.S. acute care and critical access hospitals for approval to bill Medicare for more than a decade.
But when the AO, whose parent company is in Norway, wanted to branch...
