Like the dust that settles all around me: I got those low-down TJC FAQ blues
I don’t know if there’s anything to be inferred by the fact that the latest updates on the ligature resistance front are “buried” on p. 8 of the May 2019 Perspectives (after an onslaught of what I characterize as Joint Commission advertisements), but it would be nice to think that perhaps folks are going to be allowed to move on at their own “pace” as a function of risk assessments, abatement and mitigation strategies and monitoring for gaps in safety, but I guess we shall see what we shall see.
At any rate, the May Perspectives (on p. 8—imagine that!) provides two topics, one of which, video monitoring we discussed a few weeks back (I guess they like to repurpose content as much as anyone…) and a clarification on the (admittedly somewhat awkwardly worded) requirement that self-closing and self-locking (both, not one or the other) doors are required for the separation of areas required to be ligature resistant and those that are not, with the intent being to eliminate reliance on staff to close and lock those doors to prevent patient harm. The FAQ also prohibits the use of hold-open devices of any kind on these doors, so do keep that in mind. This applies to “staff controlled” areas on a behavioral health unit, like med rooms, utility rooms, consult rooms, etc. This is all based on Recommendation #1 published in the November 2017 Perspectives and the guidance that patient rooms, patient bathrooms, corridors, and common patient areas are to be ligature resistant. If this is news to you (I don’t know that we’ve discussed this particular piece of the puzzle), I can’t say that I am surprised as it really didn’t stand out at the time and really required too much in the way of cogitation to figure out what they were getting at, particularly the descriptor (“Nursing stations with an unobstructed view (so that a patient attempt at self-harm at the nursing station would be easily seen and interrupted) and areas behind self-closing/self-locking doors do not need to be ligature-resistant and will not be cited for ligature risks.”) as it was probably a little too all-inclusive. I think I would have separated them into two bullet points:
- Nursing stations with an unobstructed view
- Areas behind self-closing/self-locking doors
But hey, as long as we get there in the end, right? Yeah, sure, fine…
In other news, ASHRAE is in the public comment process relative to proposed changes to ASHRAE 170 Standard for Ventilation of Health Care Facilities (you can see the proposed draft here). Given that NFPA 99 defers to ASHRAE on the ventilation front, I can’t help but think that this is going to continue to be a cornerstone compliance document during survey activities. I don’t know that I noted anything particularly egregious, etc., in the proposed update, but I always try to encourage the folks in the field to review and weigh in when these things are open for comment. Before we got to ligature-resistant considerations, the management of procedural environments as it relates to temperature, humidity, air pressure relationships, etc. was the hot-button topic, so any changes might have a similar impact on the industry. Unfortunately, I just got wind of this last week and the comment period ends May 6, so act fast!
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.