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.

Management Plans

• 3/13/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
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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
• 152 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
• 494 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
• 928 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
• 2030 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
• 6721 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
• 9098 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
• 9382 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
• 10723 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
• 11098 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
• 11758 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
• 11892 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
• 12878 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
• 12892 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
• 13369 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
• 13424 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
• 15082 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
• 17504 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
• 18339 Views
• 3 Comments
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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 >>

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