All too often, healthcare organizations are left to figure out compliance on their own. Certainly, some folks have the wherewithal to contract with vendors to provide assistance, which is great, but sometimes it's the back stories that result in compliance that are most useful/compelling. With...
One of the most feared laboratory safety risks is exposure to hazardous materials, be they biological, chemical, or radioactive. Preventing and responding to these events are key to every laboratory safety officer’s job, and knowing what to do can sometimes be the difference between life and...
Kurt Patton, MS, RPh, founder and president emeritus of Patton Healthcare Consulting, knows intimately about some of the misunderstood compliance challenges in hospitals today. He catches up with IAQ to talk about some of them in this first part.
Despite being a high-income country, the United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The CDC states that over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable—a clear indicator that reform is...
We live in a world full of polls and trends and all manners of things that represent themselves as manifestations of "how things are going." When I was coming up through the ranks, the closest thing I ever received to management training was a sense of the approach known as "management by...
Safety training shouldn’t be something that is performed once and put aside. Yet in far too many laboratories, that’s exactly what happens. Do you have a new employee? Train them. Have they been on staff for a few years? Maybe you should do a yearly fire drill and that’s it. However, just like...
Healthcare accreditation and compliance is made of numerous moving parts and requires a great deal from the people who work in it. The role is more than staying updated on all the standards and regulations from CMS, The Joint Commission (TJC), or other authorities having jurisdiction. It also...
Depending on the complexity, patient volumes, etc. of your organization, be prepare to see more Life Safety (LS) surveyor days, as the survey process will be including an LS visit for any location in which care is provided under your hospital's CMS Certification Number (CCN)
Clear, visible wayfinding and signage are things your hospital, clinic, or laboratory needs around the clock. In day-to-day situations, knowing where to go can avoid frustration, confusion, and delays. In an emergency, it saves lives.
