’Twas the week before Christmas and all through the…

Do you ever find yourself at the end of the year with a list of random items that you just never got to? It’s not that they weren’t (or, indeed, aren’t) important, but somehow…

At any rate, in looking at my box of blog ideas, I found a bunch of stuff relating to emergency power concerns and considerations, so figured an e-power bundle of bloggy goodness is in order. As always, when it comes to the topic of emergency power, I have to tip the safety hat to Dan Chisholm, Sr. and Danny Chisholm of the Motor & Generator Institute for doing such a great job of covering the world of emergency power. Particularly in a time where healthcare employees have been charged with manslaughter after the death of 14 patients during Hurricane Irma (story here), the degree of scrutiny accorded to emergency power inspection, testing and maintenance is likely to continue apace and the Motor & Generator Institute, at least in my mind, is a must-read.

Some of the topics you’ll find (check out MGI’s blog) if you hop over for some end of the year reading are:

• Confusion on the part of surveyors relating to the interpretation of NFPA 110 and citations resulting from folks not properly “inspecting” their automatic transfer switches and Dan Chisholm Sr.’s proposal to the NFPA 110 technical committee to help reduce that confusion: Find more info here and here.
• Remember all those findings relating to compliance with the whole emergency generator shutoff buttons outside of the generator space (which vanished from the Joint Commission standards as a specific, but lives on in the hearts of virtually no one)? If you don’t, there’s been some movement (including hope for a brighter future state of compliance) on that front. Check it out here.

Finally for this missive, there are few more critical times in the life of a facility than the period of recovery following natural disasters; and sometimes a checklist can be helpful.

I’ll have something for you next week, but on the off chance that your holiday includes minimal consideration of work-related stuff, please accept my best wishes to you and yours for a most joyous holiday of your choosing and a productive and prosperous 2020!

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.