It seems that lately I’ve run into too many instances in which critical infrastructure components have failed because they have reached the end of their useful life and there’s insufficient strategic planning to ensure that systems are sufficiently robust and well-maintained to ensure that...
Regular trash is bad enough, but the things that laboratories throw out are dangerous as well as egregious: used needles and sharps, body fluids, caustic chemicals, and items that will burst into flames in the right conditions. Lab staff can be injured by improper disposal of chemical waste, but...
During a fire, it’s not just the flames you need to worry about. Most fire deaths are due to smoke inhalation, and inside a hospital, nursing home, or clinic, there are plenty of patients who are extra sensitive to changes in air quality. While the wildfires in Los Angeles this January were...
With everything going on in the world in terms of project funding—not just in healthcare, but pretty much any and every environment—I recognize that remaining optimistic can seem to be something of a fool’s errand, but for the folks responsible for ensuring the safest possible environment for...
It seems to me that I’ve been looking at a lot of survey findings lately and there appears to be a strong undercurrent of findings that might or might not represent actual deficiencies in the physical environment.
There was a subsection of hospitals surveyed in 2023 that struggled with the notion of a continuity of operations plan (COOP), which, if I’m honest, kind of puzzles me. My sense is that without a fairly effective COOP (whether you call it that or not), an organization would have had a very...
Natural disasters are not going away any time soon—and the days of practicing casualty events and unscheduled utility disruptions as standalone events are probably gone forever.
I’m penning this as I look out the window at Logan International Airport in Boston and take in the efforts to keep the runways clear enough for takeoffs and landings—I don’t know how the pilots feel, but I think they’re doing a pretty good job.
According to the CDC’s November 21, 2024, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), vaccination rates among nursing home and long-term care residents are low.
While there are certainly many prognosticators in the media that are not held accountable for missteps, for those charged with providing a safe and secure environment, there’s not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to identifying protective measures that will keep things running smoothly.
