First time compliance manager? Here are some behind-the-scenes tips

The most effective tool for patient safety? Frequent and thorough communication throughout each shift, says Andrea Truex, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer of Englewood (Florida) Community Hospital, which consistently receives high safety grades.

Under her leadership, the hospital has received 18 consecutive “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, a national distinction recognizing achievements protecting patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. Leapfrog is an industry standard for safety, quality of care, and patient experience, particularly for insurance agencies that check grades before recommending facilities to their clientele, Truex says.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited a Bloomingdale, Illinois, nursing facility with violations of the agency’s COVID-19 healthcare emergency temporary standard (ETS). OSHA cited West Suburban Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for a repeat violation of the respiratory protection standard and five serious health violations and is seeking $83,675 in penalties.

“Simply wearing a respirator is not enough,” OSHA Area Director Jake Scott said in a statement. “Employers must ensure respirators fit correctly and maintain a face-to-facepiece seal to ensure they protect the user from the spread of infectious diseases.”

Telehealth stakeholders are asking the Biden Administration to provide guidance on the anticipated end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency while also calling for the extension of the PHE and its telehealth provisions through the end of 2022.

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, American Telemedicine Association CEO Ann Mond Johnson said the PHE created “flexibilities that have allowed clinicians across the country to provide all Americans high-quality virtual care at a time of great need.”

Understanding the ins and outs of accreditation and compliance can be overwhelming for first time managers. Maybe someone took time to explain the job. Or maybe they just pointed at a manual and said, “good luck.”

Like any other job in a hospital, it takes education, time, and creativity to do the job with competency.

Inside Accreditation & Quality asked some experienced compliance officers what they’d wished they had known when the first stepped into the job, and we asked former surveyors and consultants what advice they’d offer to first-timers.

When it gets too hot or cold in most buildings, you’re expected to put on a jacket, turn on a fan, or just deal with it. That’s not an option for healthcare facilities and laboratories, which must maintain a consistent indoor temperature regardless of outdoor conditions.

Data shows that 2011 to 2020 was the warmest decade on record, and the heatwave that struck the Western U.S. and Canada in June 2021 killed at least a 100 people in Oregon and Washington state, and even melted power lines in Seattle.

On the other end of the mercury, global warming has also destabilized the artic polar vortex—the high altitude winds circling the Artic. As they’ve become destabilized, the vortex pushes farther and farther south (picture a spinning top slowing down and wobbling). For places unprepared for this, the effects can be deadly, like the record cold front that struck Texas in February 2021, crippling the state’s power grid and resulting in dozens of deaths.

Humanity will have to change nearly every aspect of our lives to halt climate change—or it must adapt to it. That includes healthcare facilities.