Service Animals in the ER
Balancing the need to keep medical settings safe and clean with the rights of patients with disabilities and their service animals has challenges.
What Providers Can Do This National Suicide Prevention Week
National Suicide Prevention Week is September 10-16, bringing awareness to the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. This week is a time for physicians, nurses, and other providers to learn more about how their healthcare organizations can help suicidal patients.
Some HIPAA Requirements Waived For Hospitals Affected By Hurricane Harvey
Hospitals and other healthcare organizations affected by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana were granted an emergency reprieve from certain limited HIPAA requirements, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced in an August 30 email alert. The agency also published a bulletin August 29.
What Exactly is a ‘High-Performing’ Health System?
A review by The Joint Commission finds broad and inconsistent uses for the term and definitions that are all over the map, hindering effective measures for the concept.
Treatment Center Faces $207k Fine as OSHA Announcements Grow Rarer
A facility in Massachusetts is accused of failing to address workplace violence risks as it had promised.
Mixing Medicine
The Joint Commission unveiled a Medication Compounding Certification (MCC) program that’s open to all compounding pharmacies, not just those accredited by The Joint Commission. The accreditor also called upon healthcare providers to work toward the elimination of medication compounding-related infections (MCRI) like the meningitis outbreak.
CMS Clarifies Which Doors Must Be Inspected Annually
After pushback, federal officials backed away from their claim that smoke barrier doors must be inspected and tested annually.
Accreditors Can Keep Their Hospital Inspection Reports Secret, Feds Decide
Reversing course, federal health officials withdrew a proposal that would have required private accrediting organizations to publicly release reports of problems they found in health care facilities. Accreditors and hospitals had panned the idea; consumer advocates and business groups supported it.
Three Keys to Preventing Workplace Violence
This article originally appeared in the June issue of Patient Safety Monitor Jounal. This spring, Ann Scott Blouin, RN, PhD, FACHE, executive vice president of The Joint Commission, wrote a blog post detailing the need for a practical approach to healthcare’s endemic workplace violence (WPV) problem. In 2013, more than 70% of the 23,000 significant … Continued
Infusion Errors, Instrument Cleaning Lead ECRI List of Top Tech Hazards
The ECRI Institute published its annual list of the top 10 health technology hazards for the industry. Readers will note that several of the top hazards in 2017 are the same as those in 2016.