Survey monitor: HVA and other disaster preparations receive scrutiny

The Joint Commission’s 2009 life safety and emergency management chapters have proven to be focus areas for surveyors, at least based on a visit to Oregon State Hospital’s (OSH) Portland and Salem behavioral health campuses February 23–27.
The hospital retained its accreditation, with four direct impact findings spread across the 635-bed facility and 51 others under elements of performance (EP) with lesser criticality levels. Under The Joint Commission’s new scoring system, a facility the size of OSH could have up to 13 direct impact findings before citations affected accreditation.
Many of the indirect impact findings were related to EC and life safety standards.