Emergencies, staffing to get top focus
Surveyors will focus on hazard vulnerability
The events of Sept. 11 are rippling through the health care system in a number of ways, and it appears they will lead to some changes in the way Joint Commission surveyors look at health care providers this year.
At the recent annual conference for Joint Commission surveyors in Chicago, one of the featured speakers was Len Aubrey, CEO of New York University’s Downtown Hospital, the hospital nearest to the World Trade Center and the facility most directly affected by the emergency. According to a report provided by the Joint Commission, Aubrey stressed the importance of emergency preparedness and disaster training of all medical staff, not just the emergency department.
Surveyors attending the conference were told that "emergency management and preparedness will be one area that surveyors will focus on in 2002." Joe Cappiello, vice president of accreditation field operations for the Joint Commission, says surveyors will focus on hazard vulnerability assessments that identify all potential hazards to the organization and how those hazards can affect the organization directly and indirectly. Surveyors also will look at how well the organization is involved in community emergency planning and practice drills, communication and planning in cooperation with other area health care organizations, and the organization’s scalable command structure. The scalable command structure refers to the organization’s ability to flex to the magnitude of a particular disaster.
The Joint Commission reports that another area of focus for 2002 will be the new staffing effectiveness standards, HR.2.1, which go into effect for hospitals in July 2002 and tentatively for nonhospital programs by January 2003. Pilot testing of the draft standards has been conducted at 43 hospitals and five long-term care and assisted living organizations.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content