Case Study: Life Safety Management
The Challenge
Addressing the upcoming Joint Commission compliance for 2009
Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, has over 300 licensed beds and is one of the ten largest hospitals in the Chicagoland area. This facility and others in the Edward Health Services Corporation family are well known for their quality of care and progressive approach to meeting the needs of their patients.
Like other healthcare facilities, Edward Hospital was concerned with the Joint Commission compliance and the pending changes in 2009. In order to address those changes, Edward Hospital required a proven, easy-to-implement method for inspecting life safety elements, reporting issues regarding deficient elements, and correcting deficiencies.
The Solution
A comprehensive method for managing life safety elements
To meet the challenges, Edward Hospital consulted with Advanced Technologies Group, Inc., (ATG) to implement ATG’s Life Safety Management™ (LSM) solution. This comprehensive solution is a three-pronged approach to managing life safety elements, which includes:
- Implementing a self-assessment process for periodic inspections, as advocated by the Joint Commission
- Interfacing the inspection process with Edward Hospital’s work order system
- Developing procedures for addressing the ongoing Plan for Improvement (PFI) at Edward Hospital
As part of the implementation phase, ATG incorporated all of the life safety elements described under Section 6J of the Joint Commission Statement of Conditions (SOC) into the LSM solution. At Edward Hospital’s request, ATG also incorporated all of the non-rated doors at the facility into the solution as part of an initiative to address recurring door latch issues.
All of the data regarding the life safety elements and non-rated doors were integrated into the Enterprise Active Visual System™ (AVS), ATG’s facility information system. After the initial data integration, facility personnel at Edward Hospital would perform scheduled inspections using the Pocket PC component of the LSM solution and synchronize the inspection results with the AVS. Through the web portal component of the AVS, authorized users at Edward Hospital could then generate comprehensive reports and view inspection results about the non-rated doors and life safety elements by item type, inspection date, pass/fail status, and room number or location.
With these reports, managers can review a list of failed items at a glance and easily determine what corrective actions may be needed. If a failed life safety element can be corrected within 30 days (45 days in 2009), it can be sent to the work order system. ATG and Edward Hospital are also working together to develop the interface to allow authorized users to access work order information directly from the AVS. For elements that are not addressable within the time allowed, the solution can automatically generate the PFIs, which can then be integrated with Edward Hospital’s existing PFI database.
Users conduct inspections with the Pocket PC and synchronize the data to the AVS. From the web portal component of the AVS, managers can run reports and identify failed life safety elements at a glance to determine what corrective actions may be needed.
The Results
Saving money and reducing risk by managing life safety elements proactively
Edward Hospital is now prepared for the Joint Commission compliance for 2009—all while having reduced their reliance on outside life safety code consultants. Now that the solution is in place, Edward Hospital has considered including more life safety elements, such as fire extinguishers, pull stations, smoke dampers, and more in order to maintain a progressive approach to life safety beyond the requirements of the Joint Commission. Due to the success of the LSM solution, Edward Hospital has also implemented it at Linden Oaks Hospital.
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