Articles

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 5

What’s driving your program performance goals?

May 13, 2024
Accreditation & Survey Preparation, Physical environment

As I think about it, I probably should have come up with this one a little earlier in the year when the world was full of the spritely talk of annual evaluations of physical environment management programs, but I guess there’s no statute of limitations on discussing goals—or indeed, any sort of...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 5

Should we talk about the weather?

May 6, 2024
Climate Change, Environment and Facilities, Natural & Manmade Disasters, Physical environment

Having bopped around a fair amount of the nation over the last 6 months or so, I heard a fair number of stories from folks working in healthcare of the many and varied travails they faced during the winter months as whatever powers one might attribute to nature wandered very far afield. Folks...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 4

Compliance chickens and regulatory eggs

April 29, 2024
Workplace safety

But which came first?

In the world of safety data, there is certainly a tendency to want to know what’s going on in that world, and oftentimes that knowledge comes tied to a Top (insert number here) List. And the good folks at the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) are...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 4

MRI safety—It’s everyone’s responsibility

April 23, 2024
Healthcare Staff, Physical environment

… whether they know it or not!

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 4

Emergency management: Glass half full or glass half empty?

April 15, 2024
Physical environment, Environment and Facilities

Or is there even a glass when there is no dire emergency facing healthcare?

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 4

A portion of the physical environment is invisible

April 8, 2024
Physical environment, Environment and Facilities

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot work that involves above-the-ceiling inspections, so I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in “backstage” areas. As my knees will tell you (as they have been reminding me), climbing ladders and poking one’s head above the ceiling is an arduous task—one for which...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 4

Is compliance in the physical environment a solvable equation?

April 2, 2024
Physical environment, Environment and Facilities

There always seems to be a lot of interest in how folks manage conditions in the environment, particularly how “other” folks are managing conditions in the environment. Clearly, the interest in all this is being reinforced on a regular basis by the accreditation organizations’ focus on the...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 3

Breaking news: Regulated medical waste to be managed

March 25, 2024
Accreditation & Survey Preparation, Environment and Facilities

In an interesting update, our friends from Chicago have updated the requirements for managing trash (heretofore identified as: The hospital has procedures for the proper routine storage and prompt disposal of trash) to widen the scope a wee bit to requiring hospitals to have procedures for the...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 3

Managing one of your most critical utility systems' assets

March 19, 2024
Environment and Facilities

​While most of the time your Emergency Power Supply System (EPSS) stands by to provide coverage in the event of a power outage/disruption, as most of you know, it takes a lot of care and feeding (so to speak) to ensure that your EPSS is ready to go to work at a moment’s notice—or less. There is...

Mac's Safety Space - Volume 18, Issue 3

ECRI top 10 patient safety concerns

March 12, 2024
Infection Control, Patient Safety, Physical environment

Recently, the good folks at ECRI revealed their report on the Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2024. I don’t know that anyone would be surprised at what made the list, though I am surprised that one consideration did not show up (more on that in a moment). 

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