Baby Love – The Supremes Tackle the Tough Questions…

January 31, 2022

By Steve MacArthur, Hospital Safety Consultant

I hope you’ll forgive me if I cheat a little bit this week; living in the Boston area, the meteorological folks have kicked things into high gear with talk of hurricane-force winds and the like, so I’m penning this before the lights go out for real and I liked the headline too much to let it languish just because the initial focus is a little past its sell-by date…

At any rate, we know that the Supreme Court voted to allow the CMS vaccine mandate to go forward, while blocking OSHA’s more expansively applicable vaccine mandate. At this point, it’s a little early in the game to be able to tell much about how this will impact the course of COVID; I suspect it will have some, but it’s also likely that, as has been the case with so many (too many?) aspects of the pandemic, it could be a wicked long time before everything becomes clear. I, for one, am not holding my breath and I suggest that you do likewise. At any rate, if you crave more information, this would be a good starting point for information on the decisions: https://www.accreditationqualitycenter.com/articles/high-court-backs-cms%E2%80%99-vaccine-mandate-not-osha%E2%80%99s .

Also, if you’re interested in the healthcare industry’s position on what’s been going on, these links should provide a reasonable background:

To a degree, while I do like the idea of leveling the playing field a bit when it comes to our ongoing struggles to “flatten the curve,” I can’t help but think that there remain so many variables in terms of what folks are doing relative to vaccinations and masking and hand hygiene and all of it. Is there a natural course for the pandemic that we have to endure? Is there a united approach to this that could actually shorten the lifespan of something that has gone on for (what seems to be) an impossibly long time. I don’t know about you, but this is not an anniversary that I want to be celebrating, but it’s kinda looking like it might be <sigh!>

One other item that I wanted to touch upon is the list of waivers that the folks at the American Hospital Association feel should be extended or made permanent:

https://www.aha.org/2022-01-28-fact-sheet-covid-19-waivers-should-be-extended-made-permanent-or-enacted-order-improve ; I didn’t see anything that related specifically to the management of the physical environment, but my review of the fact sheet did prompt the question as to whether there were any waivers for which an extension or permanent status might be helpful/useful to folks.

The one thing that popped into my head was whether there’s been enough data collected regarding alternative Inspection, Testing & Maintenance activities that might be enough to sway the regulatory/accreditation organizations into easing back on the stick, so to speak, when it comes to ITM expectations. Certainly we have an obligation to (and will always be duty bound to) ensure the safety of systems and equipment for staff and patients in our organizations, but have we reached the point where we work beyond the strictures of the almighty IFU? I dunno – what do you think?

About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Greeley Company in Danvers, Mass. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is also a contributing editor for Healthcare Safety Leader. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.

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Natural & Manmade Disasters, Environment and Facilities, Infection Control