CMS updates IC, other survey guidance for long-term care facilities and proposes COPs for new rural emergency hospital provider type

CMS has updated survey guidance on minimum health and safety standards for long-term care (LTC) facilities, including expectations for infection control and how patients are admitted, transfered and discharged to a hospital.

CMS has published a proposed list of 23 Conditions of Participation for the new rural emergency hospital provider type. The same Federal Register posting on Thursday, June 30, also included revisions to CoP for critical access hospitals.

More than 5,000 nurses have signed up for a new free nurse burnout prevention program in which the American Nurses Association (ANA) is encouraging its members to participate. ANA has partnered with SE Healthcare for the Burnout Prevention Enrichment CenterTM, a web-based platform that offers 24/7 an ever-growing collection of tools and audio and video educational content to help prevent career burnout.

In this week’s installment, our friends in Chicago have sharpened their pencils (and placed them in a safe place once their edits were completed) in their guidance to behavioral health organizations, as well as hospitals, and the expectations for patient safety risk assessments in non-inpatient settings (residential, partial hospitalization, day treatment, outpatient and intensive outpatient programming).

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is crafting its 20​23–2026 National Health Security Strategy (NHSS). ASPR officials say this guidance will present an opportunity for security leaders to take the lessons being learned in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and “focus ​the nation’s priorities to address evolving public health challenges and be better prepared for future health security threats.”

Emergency showers, manufacturer instructions, staffing and personnel issues—these are some of the standards that laboratories are struggling with, according to the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC). In its fall/winter 2021 edition of The Surveyor, the accreditation organization analyzed the top deficiencies laboratories faced during the height of the pandemic, along with offering suggestions for improvement.

When you visit a website for the first time and it asks for your cookie preferences, how often do you just click “accept all” to get on with what you’re doing—especially if you’re busy and have a bunch of sites to visit? And do you have that same attitude when you need to update the electronic medical record (EMR) multiple times a day?

If your hospital security team is reassessing its workplace violence plan in the wake of recent hospital shootings, make sure to have a thorough risk assessment and a well-researched plan before going to leadership for more resources.

Review your hospital’s practices for storing sterile devices and supplies now that three of the four hospital accrediting organizations (AO) have recently cited concerns about improper storage.

CMS approved The Joint Commission’s (TJC) hospital accreditation program for just another three years. If not for the pandemic, that time span might have been longer.