Is it really transparency if they have to catch you first?

By Steve MacArthur, Hospital Safety Consultant

A few months ago, I was working with a facility that, as it turns out, was experiencing challenges with managing temperature and humidity in some of their procedural areas. When I got to the space in question during the building tour, I took particular note of some portable dehumidifiers in a couple of the rooms (one of which hadn’t been emptied in enough time that water was pooling on the floor). In both rooms, the humidity level indicated on the monitoring devices in the rooms was in the 70+ range—a value most surveyors would consider a tad “moist” for a procedural area (my first thought was how high would the humidity be if they weren’t running additional dehumidifiers). At any rate, I asked to see the logs and found enough irregularities to ask to see the perioperative department director. I should mention that this was day four of a four-day consulting gig.

In meeting with the director, I was told that they were embracing full transparency in informing me that they had been experiencing environmental issues in this space for quite some time. My immediate response (which, I will admit, was a bit catty) was: “Is it really transparency if you only tell me after I’ve identified the issue?” I know that sometimes folks like to leave things to see if I can find them (or see if I remember something from the last time I was there) and I think I have a pretty good track record of identifying the various and sundry gaps that can make a good survey go bad in a hurry. But this one really caught me sideways (and continues to) relative to the transparency thing. As I’ve maintained is the case for managing garden variety deficiencies; if folks have to go look for things to fix that have already been identified, it doesn’t strike me as particularly efficient, but that may just be me…

In other news, our friends from Chicago recently published a piece penned by Herman McKenzie, the director of the engineering group at The Joint Commission (TJC); in the piece, Mr. McKenzie provides some insight into what FAQs have been updated, as well as some common concerns in the physical environment. I don’t know if we’ll be seeing Mr. McKenzie as a featured contributor to Perspectives, but hopefully this represents the re-commencement of regular information regarding TJC’s expectations in the physical environment. Generally, September/October is round about the time we hear about the most frequently cited standards during the first half of the year, but I guess that schedule (like pretty much everything else) has been knocked on its keister. At any rate, this link will take you to what’s current (I hesitate to say “new”, just because) in the management of the environment.

Until next time, please be well and stay safe!

About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Greeley Company in Danvers, Mass. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is contributing editor for Healthcare Safety Leader. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.