Dig out your screening plans for MERS-CoV, Ebola, measles, or any other infectious disease and update them with the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Build off any protocols you already have for handling extra-busy days at your emergency department (ED) to create a patient surge plan that can seamlessly expand as needed during a local disaster.
CMS announced it is combining the interpretive guidelines that its surveyors use for psychiatric hospitals into the main Appendix A for hospitals, eliminating the need for double survey visits.
CMS is revising its State Operations Manual (SOM) for hospitals in one of the first significant overhauls in more than a year. But be aware that the changes are not fully online yet and more revisions are to come.
The Joint Commission (TJC) is revising its medication management standards, requiring clear and accurate medication orders—catching up to what surveyors have been scoring for some time now.
As of January 1, CMS eliminated the paper version of the form to report patient deaths associated with restraint or seclusion. Form CMS-10455 must now be filed through an electronic version.
Only 20% of hospital executives said their organization is a “safety innovator,” meaning it has the resources committed to provide state-of-the-art patient safety management.