It comes with the territory of being the safety officer that you are responsible to make sure holiday decorations do not affect the overall safety of your facility. The Life Safety Code®, which CMS and other deeming authorities observe, generally prohibits combustible...
OSHA addresses fire safety under the General Industry Standards (29CFR1910). Facilities under construction should consult the edition of the of the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) Life Safety Code adopted by your regulating agency for more detailed information.
Safety concerns and potential for erroneous errors have made the Waived Testing (WT) chapter a common area of focus for surveyors during patient tracers. Surveyors will observe staff while performing waived testing and ask them questions about training and competency. Therefore, you will want...
As cases of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) continue to persist and influenza season picks up, the CDC is urging hospitals to check the efficiency of their heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Compared to white patients, Black patients are 42% more likely to die following high-risk surgery and Hispanic patients are 21% more likely to die. Overall, about 8,364 Black and 4,338 Hispanic excess postsurgical deaths occurred between 2000-2020. To eliminate the disparity in mortality by 2030...
Well (at least up here in the Northeast), it appears that the cooling season is rapidly changing over to the heating season and, (so it would seem) the advocacy season is heating up as well.
Late last week, the combined forces of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-...
If your facility doesn’t already have a sepsis program or wants to revamp its existing program, the release of the CDC’s new hospital sepsis program core elements marks a good place to start. Released on August 24, the seven core elements are aimed at strengthening survival and recovery rates...
Living in Virginia, hurricane season usually has me thinking about lab disaster plans and the risk of a real natural disaster. In the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, the highest hurricane risk occurs between September and November. So far this year, a few storms have pointed in this...
As the result of a CMS directive, unannounced surveys for organizations started in 2006. If you are undergoing a deemed status survey, your visit will be unannounced except in certain circumstances, such as for durable medical equipment or small-office practices. Organizations new to...
