There always seems to be a lot of interest in how folks manage conditions in the environment, particularly how “other” folks are managing conditions in the environment. Clearly, the interest in all this is being reinforced on a regular basis by the accreditation organizations’ focus on the...
When assessing the needs of each patient, don’t forget to ask about religious requirements, including patients who are seeking care virtually or engaging in education through hospital-provided tablets or other devices.
Ergonomics is a safety topic that gets little respect in the laboratory, but it can become very important over time. The effects of poor ergonomics are cumulative, and they can appear suddenly. When they arise, the pain and treatment are often difficult, and as people age, healing is slower as...
In an interesting update, our friends from Chicago have updated the requirements for managing trash (heretofore identified as: The hospital has procedures for the proper routine storage and prompt disposal of trash) to widen the scope a wee bit to requiring hospitals to have procedures for the...
Ensuring you have competent physicians who are providing high-quality care is essential to the success of any healthcare organization. To evaluate physician care, hospitals and medical staffs have spent years developing their peer review processes. CMS and other major accreditors all require...
CMS officials are calling for more federal oversight of accrediting organizations (AO) due to unhappiness with patient safety mistakes they learn about from the news media and with problems identified by CMS surveyors but seemingly missed by AOs.
Training and education in any professional role can help individuals improve their skills and learning competencies. Training and education opportunities, however, often get sidelined by day-to-day duties and lost in performance reviews. That should not be the case, and certainly when it comes...
CMS’ State Operations Manual, Appendix A, offers interpretive guidelines for its own state surveyors and generally has been held as the guide for all the accrediting bodies. It outlines the tasks that accompany the survey process for hospitals, from off-site survey preparation to post-...
As CMS begins focusing more on emergency preparedness planning, review your hospital’s plans to ensure they include how the facility will handle a patient surge during civic unrest. Preparation for civic unrest unfortunately must be a part of any medical facility’s emergency planning, say...