New workplace violence prevention requirements will require tough questions

FDA issues new recommmendations on reprocessing flexible bronchoscopes.

Implementing The Joint Commission’s (TJC) workplace violence prevention requirements is going to take a multidisciplinary committee that is not afraid to ask hard questions about your organization’s culture of safety.

A chief medical executive has a key role to play in addressing health equity, the new chief medical executive at Clive, Iowa-based MercyOne says.

Review the details of an interim final rule CMS published in May that sets COVID-19 vaccine requirements for long-term care (LTC) facilities and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICFs-IID). CMS is considering extending these requirements to other healthcare organizations, including psychiatric hospitals and inpatient hospice facilities. So, you or your C-suite may want to submit comments on the rule. The changes to the Conditions of Participation for LTC and ICFs-IDD primarily require vaccines to be offered to residents, clients, and staff when available. They also set education and CDC reporting requirements.

Patient experience is a valuable element of addressing patient safety incidents and conducting quality improvement initiatives.

After decades of operating with provider-centric care, healthcare organizations are becoming increasingly patient-centric. Evaluating and improving patient experience is a core component of patient-centric care.

“When you are defining patient experience, the most important factor is the patient perspective. There are many different levels. There is the one-on-one encounter that generates patient experience. There may be a sampling tool or survey tool to understand at a broader level the experience of the patients,” says Pat Merryweather-Arges, MA, executive director of Chicago-based Project Patient Care.

Patient experience can play an essential role when there are patient safety incidents, she says. “The patient experience is extremely valuable when there has been harm because patients can comment on a missed diagnosis, on not being listened to, or other factors. You can answer important ‘what if’ questions. ‘What if the clinician had acted differently?’ ‘What if the clinician had listened to me?’ ‘What if the clinician had taken me seriously?’ ‘What if the pain that I was feeling was addressed?’ ”

In March, OSHA issued its Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The updates extend existing OSHA protections for workplace safety whistleblowers, explicitly stating those protections apply to those who report COVID-19 related violations at the workplace by creating a National Emphasis Program (NEP).

In addition, the memo also classifies industries based on the inherent COVID-19 risks for their workers. Naturally, those in the healthcare industry are considered at higher risk. This means that healthcare clinics and hospitals should expect more OSHA scrutiny, and possibly more OSHA surveys, than before. Whenever practical, OSHA will perform on-site surveys, but remote or partially remote surveys will also be an option.

“The NEP targets establishments that have workers with increased potential exposure to this hazard,” according to the update. “In addition, this NEP includes an added focus to ensure that workers are protected from retaliation and are accomplishing this by preventing retaliation where possible, distributing anti-retaliation information during inspections, and outreach opportunities, as well as promptly referring allegations of retaliation to the Whistleblower Protection Program.”

As the COVID-19 vaccines roll out across the country and around the world, healthcare organizations can now pivot from frontline surge preparation and focus on futureproofing their facilities. While hospitals successfully implemented emergency facility upgrades and stopgap measures to meet pressing pandemic demands, now is the perfect time for healthcare leaders to take a more comprehensive approach to their utility infrastructure capacity and capabilities. No greater lesson can be provided than the freeze that ran through Texas, causing massive power outages and questions about the adequacy of existing infrastructure. These events can come unexpectedly, causing cascading failures, and they really don’t care that we already have our hands full. Here are key challenges and potential solutions that can help health systems prepare for and weather the next crisis.