Case Study: Life Safety Management
The Challenge
The need to streamline life safety compliance
OSF HealthCare is a multi-state corporation that includes seven acute care hospitals serving both Illinois and Michigan. For over 10 years, OSF has ranked in the top 100 Integrated Healthcare networks in the country, and they pride themselves on providing state-of-the art, compassionate care to the millions of patients they serve.
Due to the upcoming changes to life safety requirements in 2009, OSF realized they needed to have a more efficient way to address life safety compliance and the reporting requirements set forth by the Joint Commission. To streamline their life safety compliance, OSF needed to address two key factors. First, they needed a uniform, self-assessment approach to place all their facilities under the same comprehensive plan. Second, such a strategy must place control of the process directly with OSF—and without continuously relying on outside code consultants.
The Solution
The Life Safety Management solution from ATG
OSF chose to implement the Life Safety Management (LSM) solution from Advanced Technologies Group, Inc. (ATG). ATG’s solution is a self-assessment methodology that combines an ongoing inspection process with an organization’s existing work order system and Plan for Improvement (PFI) reporting. The LSM gives a healthcare organization more control over the inspection and reporting process, and enables them to better allocate their own resources and take the first critical step in streamlining their life safety compliance.
To begin, ATG barcoded all of the “Section 6J” life safety elements specified under the original Joint Commission Building Maintenance Program (BMP). However, in the interest of being more proactive, many healthcare facilities often decide to inspect more than just the elements required from the original BMP. In light of this, ATG designed the LSM so it can also incorporate any other type of life safety element, including fire extinguishers, pull stations, smoke detectors, automatic sprinklers, and more.
Once the life safety elements were barcoded, ATG trained OSF personnel how to scan the barcodes and perform routine inspections using the Pocket PC component of the LSM solution. Now, facility personnel can easily update inspection data into the Enterprise Active Visual System (AVS), ATG’s secure web portal. By simply plugging the Pocket PC into its synchronization cradle, facility personnel can update the information automatically and save a tremendous amount of time by not having to enter the data manually. Once the information is updated, authorized users can then use the AVS to generate a wide variety of reports, including inspection history reports that enable users to analyze deficiency patterns and address recurring issues.
OSF maintenance personnel often deal with frequently recurring issues such as improper door latching, burned-out exit sign lights, unsealed penetrations in fire-rated walls, and more. Now, with the LSM, it is much easier to address these issues and determine whether corrective action is needed. If an element fails inspection and it can be corrected within 30 days, it goes to the work order system. However, if the deficiency requires more than 30 days to correct, OSF personnel can use the AVS to add those items to the PFI quickly, easily, and at the touch of a button.
Using synchronized data from a Pocket PC, ATG’s Life Safety
Management solution allows for instant access to life safety
CAD layouts with intelligent data attributes.
The Results
An efficient inspection and reporting method to address the management of life safety elements
The LSM solution has empowered OSF with the ability to self-assess their facilities. By having more control over the inspection process, facility personnel can more efficiently determine which deficient elements can be handled by a work order and assign PFI items with greater ease. Thus, OSF is able to reduce the time and effort required to manage their life safety elements, save on the cost of outside consultants, and reduce the number of PFI items that need to be reported to the Joint Commission.
The LSM optimizes the way they allocate FTEs by employing efficient processes for inspection, maintenance, and PFI management. By having this well-defined methodology in place, OSF can perform regular inspections and solve the underlying causes of commonly recurring issues.
OSF has now streamlined the process of managing their life safety elements. By implementing the proven and effective methodology of the LSM, OSF has met their life safety compliance challenges.
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