Best estimates from The Joint Commission (TJC) suggest that 90-100 surgical fires occur annually in the United States, creating safety hazards for patients, surgical teams, and the operating room (OR) environment. TJC recently issued Sentinel Event Alert #68, “Updated surgical fire prevention...
Winter is coming, and it’s time for laboratories to brush off their winter safety checklists. The forecast for the 2023–2024 winter season will be dominated by a powerful El Niño, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is expected to cause a warmer-than-...
Healthcare workers are no strangers to burnout and suicide as many suffer from emotional exhaustion and mental and physical stress due to the demanding nature of their job, including long working hours, high-stress environments, and death in extreme cases.
There are many benefits to utilizing telemedicine services, including increased patient access, enhanced reach of healthcare services, improved continuity of care and case management, higher patient satisfaction, and reduced patient risk of contracting communicable infectious diseases (because...
Recently, I was queried about the efficacy of having a single individual be responsible for the pre-construction risk assessment (PCRA) process based on anecdotal evidence of others doing the same. Personally, I am not familiar with any organizations (and I’m familiar with a fair number of them...
The whole purpose of the building tour is to determine if your facility is in compliance with the Life Safety Code® (LSC). The surveyor will most likely start at the top of your building inspecting mechanical rooms and the roof.
In the world of hospital laboratories, where precision and accuracy are non-negotiable, the culture of safety forms the bedrock of daily operations. It is within this critical context that Daniel J. Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ), who has over 30 years of experience as a...
Determining how your facility addresses requests for information about how it complies with CMS’ Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI) Conditions of Participation (CoP) while protecting sensitive patient safety details is a task for leadership and the hospital attorney...
In its Respiratory Disease Season Outlook, the CDC expects the 2023-2024 season will look similar to last year. Last year’s hospitalizations were higher than experienced before the COVID-19 pandemic, in which severe disease was caused primarily by the influenza virus and the respiratory...
This is Part 2 of our coverage of revisions to U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) <797> requirements for compounding sterile medication, which were discussed by Robert Campbell, PharmD, BCSCP, The Joint Commission’s (TJC) director of Medication Management, during the accreditor’s...
