EC News Blog

The Environment of Care News Blog features news and insight from Kristine Miller, Executive Editor of Environment of Care News and also provides readers with a free, online forum for readers to discuss topics like emergency management, life safety, utilities, security, and all facility safety topics.



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Safe Health Design™ workshop now available!

• 1/31/2012
• Author: Kristine Miller
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JCR’s Safe Health Design Learning Academy is now offering a workshop designed exclusively for clinical leaders involved in a health care construction project. Participants collaborate with experienced architects, designers, and other clinicians to achieve safer and more effective environments for patients, staff, and visitors. The workshop is held at The Design Yard, Holland, Michigan, April 2... more >>

JANUARY 2012 EC News Available Online

• 1/18/2012
• Author: Kristine Miller
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The January 2012 issue of Environment of Care News is now available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jcaho/ecn. Come visit and see our new look! This issue features the following articles:Tackling Top Challenging StandardsTips and Reminders to Support Compliance in EC, EM, and LSTest Your Standards IQNew Department of EngineeringThe Joint Commission Names George Mills DirectorEM Focus: Lo... more >>

October EC News Available Online

• 9/28/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 520 Views
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The October 2011 issue of Environment of Care News is now available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jcaho/ecn This issue features the following articles: Asked and Answered: Questions About Proper Storage Leveraging E-dition to Familiarize Yourself with CMS Requirements: How to Match Joint Commission Standards with the CMS Conditions of Participation An Environment of Care t... more >>

Safe Health Design Learning Academy

• 8/25/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
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Here’s an exciting opportunity to learn more about health care design! Joint Commission Resources will be hosting the Safe Health Design Learning Academy on October 18-20, 2011, at the Herman Miller Design Yard in Holland, MI. The curriculum is specifically focused at bridging the gap between the architectural design process and the needs of hospital leaders as they strive to incorporate patie... more >>

2011 Environment of Care Series: Fireside Chat

• 7/18/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 758 Views
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Join George Mills for a concise, quarterly update session keeping you abreast of the latest developments, revisions, changes, modifications, and field issues affecting the physical environment. The Fireside Chat is just the thing you need to find out about the most newsworthy and late-breaking developments to effectively manage your environment of care. Be sure to catch the next one on August ... more >>

Engineering at Hospital Executive Briefings

• 6/30/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 610 Views
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Join us at the 2012 Hospital Executive Briefings for a special engineering and clinical session: “He said—She said. The Complete Story of the 2011 Challenging Standards/NPSGs, Hot Topics and Changes for 2012.” This session will explore both the engineering and clinical perspectives of the most challenging standards and NPSGs, hot topics, and changes coming in 2012. George Mills and Pat Adam... more >>

Heat Stress

• 5/12/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 677 Views
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After weeks of frigid, wintry weather here in Chicago’s spring—I mean, 35- and 40-degree highs—suddenly, the temperature shot up to 92. I searched frantically through my closet for something cool to wear, found a tank top and light sweater, and headed off to work. Around one o’clock, I decided to go for a little walk. When I opened the office door, a suffocating cloud of heat and humidity enve... more >>

Sentinel Event Alert: Preventing Suicide in Non-Behavioral Health Care Settings

• 4/20/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 1828 Views
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Suppose this scenario happened in your hospital: A patient with an acute heart condition was on suicide watch in the medical/surgical unit. A nurse checked on him every 15 minutes. But during one of these checks, the nurse discovered the worst: the patient had hanged himself with a power cord. The cord was connected to a piece of medical equipment housed in the room. We used to think incide... more >>

Reminder: Emergency Preparedness Conference!

• 3/29/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
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What would your organization do if there were an active shooter in the building? That’s what happened at Johns Hopkins Hospital last September. A patient’s son pulled out a small semi-automatic handgun and shot the attending physician; then he barricaded himself in his mother’s room for more than two hours before he shot and killed his mother. Ultimately, he turned the gun on himself and co... more >>

In Memoriam: Jerry Gervais

• 3/15/2011
• Author: Christine Wyllie
• 938 Views
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It is with great sadness that we let you know of the passing of our good friend and colleague, Jerry Gervais. Jerry died of cancer on March 5, 2011. Many of you knew Jerry because you heard him speak at an EC Base Camp or other Joint Commission Resources education programs. Or you talked with him by phone on the Standards Interpretation Group hotline* to get an EC or emergency management qu... more >>

Hot and Cold Running Water

• 2/28/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 959 Views
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So I went to a retreat this weekend, and in the dorms, half the rooms were without hot water. Air temperature-wise, about a third of the rooms were broiling hot, another third freezing cold, and the rest were just right (said Baby Bear). In the kitchen, there was another water issue. It didn’t matter if you turned the tap marked “C” or the one marked “H.” All that came out was a scalding gu... more >>

Blizzard!

• 2/9/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 922 Views
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You’ve no doubt heard that we here in Chicago got utterly clobbered by a major snow storm last week. In a mere 35 hours, more than 23 inches fell. No, I don't mean fell. Howled, whirled, swirled, shrieked down. Or sideways. Whatever. Now, I know that some of you have experienced far worse conditions in hurricanes, earthquakes, even tornadoes. But this is the Midwest, and even though I grew ... more >>

Ergonomics Blog

• 1/31/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 1071 Views
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You know how when you find a cool new book or movie or Web site—or blog—you can't wait to share it with your friends? Well, have I got a blog for you! It's called "Hospital Ergonomics," and it's sponsored by Duke University and Duke Medicine's Occupational and Environmental Safety Office, Ergonomics Division. Recent blog topics included recommendations for bed and stretcher movers as well a... more >>

Joint Commission Collaborates to Allow Varied Strategies in Establishing Maintenance Frequencies

• 1/20/2011
• Author: Kristine Miller
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Let’s say that your hospital uses a defibrillator in an ambulance—and another defibrillator of the same make and model in a nursing unit. The manufacturer has created maintenance activities and frequencies to accommodate the much more equipment-destructive ambulance environment. But your hospital’s experience shows that the manufacturer’s recommendation, although appropriate for the ambulance,... more >>

Using Medical Technology

• 12/20/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 1279 Views
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Medical technology. We know its blessings and its challenges. Blessings: Advanced and enhanced life-saving, surgery, and recovery. Challenges: Among other things, getting users comfortable and conversant with the new machines. All this has historical precedent. When the modern and revolutionary piece of medical equipment shown in the photo was first introduced in 1965 by Joel J. Nobel... more >>

Q&A’s Clarify EC Standards

• 11/17/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 1453 Views
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So you’re getting ready to perform your triennial generator testing on your diesel-powered generators. You’ve checked the Joint Commission standards, and you know the test is for four consecutive hours and that you’re supposed to be running at least at 30% of nameplate rating. But you’re still not quite clear on one thing: what load percentages are you supposed to use for this test? Standar... more >>

Communicating During an Emergency

• 10/28/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 1903 Views
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If a disaster were to occur, the first thing most of us would likely think is, “Where are my loved ones?” The disaster might not be on the scale of the tsunami that just happened in Indonesia, and it probably wouldn’t be a volcano, either. But other disasters can and do explode here—floods, tornadoes, fires, shootings, earthquakes, and similar mass-casualty emergencies. So, should a disast... more >>

Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) Requirements

• 10/16/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 2972 Views
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A nurse marks a medication time on a chart and then realizes she has made an error in the time. She sighs and reaches for the correction fluid. Twisting open the sticky lid, she winces at the smell as the lid comes loose. “Whew, that stuff is toxic!” she thinks as she swipes over her mistake. Is it toxic? If so, what should her employer be doing about it? There’s a lot of hazardous ma... more >>

Violence Prevention

• 10/1/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 3235 Views
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A couple months ago we blogged about the new Joint Commission Sentinel Alert , issue 45, “Preventing Violence in the Health Care Setting” (see the EC News blog posted June 15, 2010). We promised you more information on preventing violence in your health care facility. To meet that need, Environment of Care News has now published “Preventing Violence in a Health Care Setting,” the cover stor... more >>

Identification Badge Requirements

• 9/16/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
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It’s a busy day at the hospital. People are coming and going in a rush past the reception desk. So nobody notices the furtive-looking woman slip past the desk and take a quick turn into pediatrics. Not until about a half hour later, when suddenly a "code pink" is called—the organization’s alarm for an infant abduction. The abductor is apprehended and the infant safely returned. But guess what?... more >>

Preparedness for Hazardous Materials Spills

• 9/1/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 4750 Views
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Sometimes while I’m driving home on the interstate that runs within a mile of my house, I’ll see these dark, murky-looking semis barreling along. If there were a Darth Vader of trucking, they would be it. And I wonder: what’s in those things? Some kind of toxic waste? Hazardous chemicals? Nothing good, that’s for sure. And then I think the next ugly thought. What if one of those things care... more >>

Preventing Falls—New Resource Available

• 8/11/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 5899 Views
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A fall for an elderly or severely ill or weakened patient can be deadly. Fall prevention is an implicit part of EC.02.01.01, which calls for organizations to manage safety risks in the environment. The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal 9, requirement NPSG.09.02.01, also guides organizations’ fall prevention efforts. To empower patients and help organizations reduce falls, The... more >>

Using Fans in Patient Care and Other Areas

• 7/14/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 7748 Views
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It’s summer, and the heat is on—pretty much across the nation. Temps topping 92 here in the Midwest. Which doesn’t seem like much to you folks on the East Coast, who’ve been frying at triple digits. And those of you in the South and the Southwest just live with this all the time. And sometimes it seems like the A/C just isn’t cranking quite enough. So—can you plug in that good ol’ fan in p... more >>

New Sentinel Event Alert on Preventing Violence in Health Care

• 6/18/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 9029 Views
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You know the facts. Violence doesn’t stay in the streets anymore. All too often it walks right into the health care facility. Or already lives there. Aware of this, The Joint Commission has just issued Sentinel Event Alert, issue 45, "Preventing Violence in the Health Care Setting." Violence and crime represent a serious security threat to both patients and staff, and security can be a c... more >>

E-books Are Here!

• 6/10/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 9150 Views
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Need the latest Environment of Care® book right now? Eager to search online for key words to find what you need? Want to save money on shipping? The answer for you is e-books. For the first time, JCR’s popular environment of care titles are now also available as e-books. E-books are PDF files that are identical to the print copy versions, but without all the shipping and the paper consum... more >>

Communities Collaborate in EM Planning

• 5/26/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 9897 Views
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In a disaster, hospitals and other health care organizations often cannot operate as independent entities. There are too many ways in which they must rely on common resources in the state, city, and community—and on each other. In Central Indiana, hospitals, community health centers, and other medical, public health, and emergency response organizations have formed a special partnership. Ca... more >>

Nurses and the EC

• 5/15/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 10372 Views
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Did you know there are 3.1 million registered nurses in the United States? That’s a lot of care—and a lot of interaction with the care environment. Think about it. Who are many of the end users of medical equipment? Who handles hazardous materials like chemo drugs and sharps? Who’d probably be the first to notice if an isolation room air flow became reversed? Who has to know how to respond ... more >>

EC Toolbox

• 5/5/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 11181 Views
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How many times have you started creating a grid to help you track something in your facility and thought, “If only I had a sample to get me going!” Well, now you do. Contained in the new Environment of Care® Toolbox: Forms, Tools, and Checklists are a wealth of forms—and grids and checklists and spreadsheets—that you can adapt to your organization. That’s right—since the tools are all in... more >>

Pediatric Design: Smart Parent Book

• 4/26/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 11498 Views
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The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources recently co-authored with Jennifer Trachtenberg, M.D. The Smart Parent’s Guide to Getting Your Kids Through Illnesses, Accidents, and Checkups: Expert Answers to the Questions Parents Ask Most. RealAge, a health company that features interactive online health and wellness quizzes and advice, also contributed to the book. The Smart Parent’s Gu... more >>

Wireless Interference

• 4/19/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 11910 Views
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Wireless devices. You know how they’re multiplying in your health care setting. And you probably have some idea of the demand they’re placing on your clinical infrastructure. But hopefully, you don’t know from experience the results of wireless interference. Wireless interference can wreak havoc with medical equipment. It may result in incorrect diagnosis or treatment, and even patient inj... more >>

Memory Prompts

• 4/7/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 12516 Views
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We all have a lot to remember these days. Personal details like logins, passwords, birthday and anniversary dates, cell phone, land line, and fax numbers—sometimes the myriad details are mindboggling. And work is no exception. Whatever your job, there are so many facts and figures to keep track of. And some of them are a lot more crucial than others. That’s why Santa Ynez Valley Cottage... more >>

Temporary Barriers

• 3/29/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 12900 Views
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Let’s say you have a construction project getting underway, and you’re thinking about how to protect this area from fire. Do plastic sheets constitute acceptable temporary fire barriers in and around construction areas? According to Joint Commission life safety experts, the answer is no. Flammable plastic sheets do not constitute acceptable temporary barriers in and around construction area... more >>

Haiti EM Rescue Team

• 3/22/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 13148 Views
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The earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, shattered foundations, toppled buildings, killed tens of thousands, and tore the earth asunder. A team of 27 doctors, nurses, and emergency specialists from The Mount Sinai Medical Center and other New York City hospitals arrived in Port au Prince eight days later and applied their emergency management and medical experience to dea... more >>

Management Plans

• 3/13/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 13995 Views
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More and more of you are working in health care organizations that offer several types of care. For example, your organization may encompass hospital and long term care settings. Or maybe it’s hospital and behavioral health care. Or maybe it’s hospital, long term care, and behavioral health care. Whatever the mix, here’s the question: When you sit down to write your EC management plans, do... more >>

Controlled Areas

• 3/2/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 13986 Views
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What constitutes a sensitive area in a health care facility—one that should be controlled by keys, key card access, or some other method? The Joint Commission doesn’t specify or recommend to organizations which areas should be designated as sensitive. Instead, it’s up to the organization to decide that. How does an organization decide? By performing a proactive risk assessment that eval... more >>

Illinois Earthquake

• 2/23/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 14195 Views
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So I was sleeping peacefully in my bedroom in the western suburbs of Chicago when, suddenly, a loud grinding noise shook the whole house. I popped awake. The cats bolted off the bed. It sounded—and felt—like a very large truck had hit the building. What was that? my semi-conscious mind demanded. And another part of my brain answered with certainty: That was an earthquake. And so it was. An ... more >>

Snow

• 2/12/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 13941 Views
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Snow. My Wisconsin-bred memories of it include howling all-nighters, driving pellets lashing our faces as we exited school early, and after the storm, towering mounds at street corners—so high you had to tie a red rag on your car antenna so other drivers could see you. Here in Chicago, folks talk about the blizzard of ’67, when the city virtually shut down and people were stranded—or trudged h... more >>

Haiti Earthquake

• 1/25/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 15038 Views
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A hospital collapsed. That was one of the first news reports I heard about the recent 7.0 Haiti earthquake. A hospital—the one place people depend on and flock to for safety and care during such devastation. A hospital—full of patients already sick or injured, many of whom could not seek their own protection. Most of the hospitals and health care facilities in the continental U.S. are stil... more >>

Med Waste Manifest

• 10/30/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 19882 Views
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Not too long ago the river near my house was pretty much declared a toxic waste cleanup site. For months, workers in hazmat suits used huge cranes and earth movers to tear apart the river banks in the spots where the thorium had collected. It will take years before that pretty little stream looks the same again; maybe never till it’s really safe. They pinned the waste pollution on a nationw... more >>

Security: Infant/Child Abduction

• 9/30/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 22815 Views
• 1 Comments
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Last weekend, I was driving down the tollway here in Illinois when I passed the illuminated overhead sign. “WARNING: CHILD ABDUCTION” it flashed in big orange letters. "Watch for late model gold Cadillac, license plate IL 5-8-etc." Child—and infant—abduction strikes a chill to the heart of every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, family friend, neighbor—pretty much everyone, rea... more >>

Community Nonparticipation

• 9/10/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 22986 Views
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We all know how essential it is that the community participates with you in emergency planning and in developing your emergency operations plan (EOP). Getting the local health department, law enforcement, fire department, city officials, and others in synch with your organization can make things run more smoothly if and when a disaster hits you all. That’s why The Joint Commission requires com... more >>

96-Hour Requirement

• 8/20/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 24159 Views
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We get a lot of questions regarding the “96-hour requirement” in emergency preparedness. People are confused about what this means. Do you have to actually have a 96-hour drill? Do you have to actually have on site all the supplies and resources you’d need to keep going for 96 hours?Well, the answer to both these questions is “No.”To get a detailed explanation of what the Joint Commission does req... more >>

Social Media, The Joint Commission

• 8/3/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 24201 Views
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Guess what? The Joint Commission is on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. So you can now follow the Joint Commission using social media. Check out the latest news!Twitter:http://twitter.com/JCommissionFacebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Joint-Commission/104533371063You Tube:http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJointCommission  What was the most helpful thing you learned about the Joint Commission fr... more >>

Using Social Media

• 7/21/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 24811 Views
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Hey—have you ever thought about using social media to communicate during an emergency? You know—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. Those.   Well, one organization did during last spring’s Red River flooding in Fargo. Other modes of communication were pretty much down, so they got the word out via Twitter. Check it out in the August EC News cover story here.   If you’re currently using social media in... more >>

Defibrillators Classified as Life Support

• 7/9/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 25006 Views
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The Joint Commission has just classified defibrillators as "life support" equipment. I think that’s a good idea, don’t you?   Defibrillators save lives. You could consider them the first line of defense in a Code Blue/cardiac arrest situation.   So—what if the defib the health care provider grabs is the one that fails? Then it wouldn’t matter if the life support equipment down the road is all cool... more >>

Steam Sterilization

• 6/30/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 26605 Views
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The Joint Commission has just issued a statement about steam sterilization of medical instruments. In a nutshell, the statement says that the Joint Commission will focus on “a complete and effective process of sterilization.” You can read the entire statement here.What does this mean to you as a facilities and engineering professional?"Maintainers and users have to make sure they’re talking to eac... more >>

HVAC—air filtering: something in the air

• 6/18/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 25648 Views
• 1 Comments
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When I was a kid, I had horrible allergies. All my dad had to do was get out the lawnmower and I’d start sneezing. Later in the season, the ragweed would reduce me to an eye-itchy miserable mess. Fortunately, I outgrew those incapacitating sniffly sneezies. Folks in hospitals don’t. What I mean is that seriously ill individuals can be especially sensitive to any foreign substances in the... more >>

Q&A

• 6/13/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 27274 Views
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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 ca... more >>

Inside Advocates

• 6/4/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 26515 Views
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EC engineers George Mills, Jerry Gervais, and John Maurer are always hard at work for you and your environment of care. I know, because every day, I watch them stride past my office, deep in discussion of some EC Standard interpretation, figuring out ways to make things better for the health care environment. Officially, they’re the engineering members of the Joint Commission’s “Standards Interpre... more >>

Pandemic Preparedness

• 5/6/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 28207 Views
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Jokes about the three little piggies abound, but swine flu, or A(H1N1) as it’s technically called, is no laughing matter. In a recent editorial http://www.jcrinc.com/Pandemic-Preparedness, Barbara M. Soule, RN, MPA, CIC, Practice Leader, Infection Prevention and Control, Joint Commission Resources/Joint Commission International, reminds us of the possibility of a pandemic flu outbreak. ... more >>

Supplies for an Emergency: Do you have them?

• 3/18/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 30508 Views
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A couple weeks ago it hit 25 below here in Chicago. Real temp. Not including wind chill. And my water pipes froze.   Thank heaven they didn’t burst, but as I sat and waited for the midnight plumber, I started thinking. OK—water—do I have any anywhere? I checked the teakettle. Empty. I checked the plant pitcher. Nada. The cats’ water jug—oh, please. I hoped I wouldn’t have to get that desperate.   ... more >>

Welcome!

• 3/5/2009
• Author: Kristine Miller
• 31496 Views
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My name is Kristine Miller. Like many of you, I’ve worked the engineering niche in a clinical world for quite some time, as editor of Environment of Care® News since its inception in 1998. Sometimes it used to seem like we were the distant cousins in a medical family.   But fortunately, it’s becoming even more apparent to clinicians and health care administrators alike that a high-quality,... more >>