-
Can you prove you are in compliance with National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs)? Compliance is mandatory for facilities undergoing an accreditation survey by The Joint Commission (TJC), and many surveyors ask for measurement data as proof of compliance, says Sue Dill Calloway, RN, Esq., BSN, MSN, JD, medical legal consultant in Dublin, OH. Dill Calloway recently spoke on "2010 Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals and How to Comply" at an audio conference sponsored by AHC Media, publisher of Same-Day Surgery and SDS Accreditation Update.
-
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) has made an electronic Application for Survey (application.aaahc.org) available to organizations seeking surveys.
-
The death of a nurse from the novel H1N1 and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) should have been more thoroughly investigated for a work-related link, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA).
-
Keeping track of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) would be a new priority under a proposed record-keeping rule, evidence of a new direction for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
-
The collective sigh of relief was almost audible at the approach of the one-year anniversary of the start of the pandemic of novel H1N1 influenza. Hospitals had dodged a bullet.
-
At most hospitals, Employee Health runs a lean operation with minimal support staff. As H1N1 influenza cases surged and patients filled the emergency departments, employee health departments struggled to cope with their own tsunami of work:
-
The processor used to disinfect endoscopes was a closed system. The sterilant was a safer alternative to glutaraldehyde. So why were employees complaining of headaches, eye irritation, shortness of breath and a reduction in their sense of smell?
-
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health offers the following advice for reducing the risk of exposure to sterilants:
-
Harry Geller, MBA, administrator of Othello (WA) Community Hospital, lies down to sleep, a smile on his face as he begins to dream about a sure-fire way to solve patient-handling dilemmas. Moments later, he turns into Superman, flying down the hall and running into a patient room to help staff before they're injured. But on his third feat, Geller faces a "heavy" patient and tumbles to the floor.
-
In the nation's biggest tobacco-producing state, no one can smoke or use tobacco on any campus of its 125 acute care hospitals or that of many of its psychiatric hospitals.
