HCPro.com: Healthcare Life Safety Compliance

August 2008 (Volume 10, Issue 8)	view entire issue

2009 life safety standards go online; Joint Commission engineer offers thoughts
Just as this issue went to press, The Joint Commission posted online the final version of its new life safety standards. These requirements will occupy their own designated chapter of the accreditation manual, taking effect January 1, 2009. The following current standards will relocate to the new chapter: EC.5.20, which requires compliance with the Life Safety Code® (LSC) and Statement of Conditions (SOC) EC.5.50, which requires hospitals to use interim life safety measures (ILSM) when appropriate The remaining EC standards dealing with fire safety will remain in the EC chapter.

Expect final nursing home sprinkler rule this summer
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has indicated that its final nursing home sprinkler regulation is imminent. Under the new rule, existing nursing homes without sprinklers will need to retrofit this equipment to maintain their Medicare funding. Newly constructed nursing homes are already required to install sprinklers under the Life Safety Code®. Announcing the rule in a June 18 press release, CMS didn't list the date the regulation would actually be released.

Stay ahead of PFI snags and anticipate other problems
Following up on a story we published in the July Healthcare Life Safety Compliance, we'll continue to look at the fire protection slipups that give facilities headaches. The good news is there are easy solutions to some of these problems if you tackle them early and monitor your building systems, said Brad Keyes, CHSP, a safety consultant at The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA. Keyes spoke during HCPro's June audioconference, "Steer Clear of the Top EC Citations." This article will outline a few big points discussed there.

Questions & Answers
Editor's note: Each month, Jennifer Frecker and James Lathrop of fire protection consulting firm Koffel Associates, Inc., in Elkridge, MD, answer your questions about life safety compliance. Our editorial advisory board also reviews the Q&A column.

Other recently-published articles from Healthcare Life Safety Compliance:

Watch for door gap scrutiny, multiple concerns in 2009

Life safety citations play a big role in lingering struggle

Regarding smoke barriers, correct locations and opening protection become prime concerns

Questions & answers

Weigh your risks when protecting electronic records

HLSC Q&A

Know where your facility needs fire barriers and what ratings the barriers need to meet the LSC

A primer on criticality and other 2009 scoring nuances

Space heater use to be more restrictive as of January 1

Beware of fire door trouble

Consider forming a life safety committee soon

State rebukes hospital about burned surgical patient

Retrofitting sprinklers will cost nursing homes $846 million

NFPA 82 sets the rules for sprinklers and ratings related to your facility’s limited access chutes

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