Just in time for the holidays: Shoes are dropping all over the place, including business occupancies!
Just when you thought that maybe, just maybe, 2020 had run out of surprises, our friends in Chicago have taken one last (hopefully) opportunity to create a little chaos in the future by introducing us to their latest brainchild—the Life Safety chapter standards and performance elements prescribing the management of business occupancies.
I don’t know that there’s anything particularly surprising in the mix, and, ultimately, may help healthcare organizations endure the scrutiny of surveyors that insist on applying healthcare occupancy requirements to business occupancies. In some ways, it also helps to clarify certain general concepts (for example, the protection of hazardous areas—I suspect you’ll be installing some door closers before too long) that were always applicable, but not always meted out during surveys. There are approximately 30 new performance elements (I count 29, but I can never tell when my math skills will legitimately start to deteriorate…) to chew on, but the “good” news is that these are not coming online until July 1, 2021, so perhaps you will have had enough time to really kick the tires in your clinics, etc.
These changes will be in play for behavioral health and critical access hospitals as well, you can find the links for each of those here.
There are also some EC and LS changes coming to behavioral health, but I think we’ll dig into those next time.
In the face of all of this, I hope that each of you has a safe and joyous holiday season and that we all get a really spiffy New Year. I think we’re earned it!
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 the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is contributing editor for Healthcare Safety Leader. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.