Joint Commission's announcement is a good development for hospitals
I’ve read with interest The Joint Commission’s announcement that it will pull back on the scoring of some EPs within the emergency management standards (see this prior blog entry for full details).
I think this is a very interesting development, and a good one for many hospitals. It makes me wonder what prompted this magnanimous gesture.
Could it be that the surveyors are "leaning" on this slate of standards with something less than a complete understanding of what is actually required? To be honest, I haven't heard of a lot of folks getting cited under the 2008 emergency management standards.
Some of the relaxed EPs deal with resources and assets during emergencies. The advice I've been giving to folks relative to managing their resources and assets inventory is that they need to maintain the inventory to the degree that they have enough reliable information to make good decisions once the poop has hit the poopdeck.
In other words, you need to be able to identify the point at which your organization needs to bring more “stuff” in, etc.
Also, I've run into a couple of organizations who have taken to establishing a requirement in their policies that they be able to sustain operations for 96 hours. In one instance, when I asked them why they did that, they told me it was a requirement of NIMS, which, interestingly enough, it is not.
While it is certainly appropriate to have the 96 hours as some sort of target, realize that it is not a Joint Commission requirement to do so. Rather, you must assess your ability to stand alone for 96 hours, and if you can’t, determine what steps you’ll take (such as evacuation).
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