Q&A
- 6/13/2009
- Author: Kristine Miller
- Category: EC News Blog
- 27278 Views
- 0 Comments
You’re down to the wire. The boss is coming around to check on your EC compliance tomorrow. You’ve got everything under control—except—wait! Does The Joint Commission want you to lock that soiled utility room?
Who do you call?
The Joint Commission’s very own experts—the Standards Interpretation Group—or “SIG” for short. That’s who. Any time between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time, you can pick up the phone, dial 630-792-5900, and talk to an engineering specialist to get your question answered. You know—those same folks I mentioned in last week’s blog—George, Jerry, and John.
Or maybe you have a question about whether everyone who enters the facility needs an identification badge. Or what to do about patient-owned medical equipment. Or exactly when and how a “tabletop” emergency exercise would be acceptable.
Some questions get asked over and over again, so SIG develops written answers and posts them on The Joint Commission Web site as “frequently asked questions—FAQs.” Go to http://www.jointcommission.org/Standards/FAQs/ and search under your particular setting—hospital, ambulatory care, and so on.
You’ll also find FAQs as a regular feature in Environment of Care® News. Check out your current June issue, page 8. FYI—we’ve collected enough of them to make a whole CD-ROM, which just came out this month (for more information, see http://www.jcrinc.com/Books-and-E-books/Environment-of-Care-Questions-and-Answers-Second-Edition/1703/). Engineers answer everything from soup to nuts to fire system hardware.
By the way, the answer to the utility room question is this: NO, the Joint Commission does not require these rooms to be locked. But TJC does suggest that you do a risk assessment to decide whether your organization should lock them. You can read the whole answer at http://www.jointcommission.org/AccreditationPrograms/Hospitals/Standards/09_FAQs/EC/Locking_Soiled_Utility.htm.
Got a question? Call in and get the right answer.
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