Healthcare facilities management series最新文献

The field of life safety was developed by concerned individuals looking for a common cause in the loss of life during fires. Creating a safe building environment became their goal, which was partially achieved by studying egress, stairs, fire detection devices, and general occupancy. As long as the building design remains unchanged, the integrity of life safety remains. However, as buildings are subjected to renovation (both planned and unplanned), the integrity of life safety may diminish during the project. This decrease in life safety resulted in the creation of interim life safety measures. This document examines appropriate interim life safety measures.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) problems have their origins in many different generating sources within facilities. General categories of these sources include building systems, processes and procedures, management, employees, and outside influences. Knowing how to identify the source(s) is the only way to resolve IAQ issues. This paper discusses methods that can be used by facilities managers and safety managers in hospitals to conduct a self-assessment to address IAQ complaints so that the problems can be quickly and adequately resolved.

Successful planning for capital investment relies upon the ability of the management team to establish a cogent and comprehensive direction for facility development. The selection of an appropriate strategy integrates multiple issues: mission, service needs of the community, the external environment, the organization's ethos, current physical resources, operational systems, and vision. This paper will identify and discuss key components and data integral to formulating a facility strategy that outlines the basic direction for developing a facility master plan. The process itself will be presented as a working methodology that can be applied to the organization's resources and vision to generate a coherent facility strategy.

Service contract management can have a profound impact on the life cycle cost and general performance of serviced equipment. Negotiating service contracts from the client's perspective can help to ensure that the facility is receiving the best possible service and terms during the contract period. This document shows examples of contract considerations.

With the almost constant change in medical waste treatment processes--including the introduction of new systems and technologies--it's hard to stay current on developments with existing and new treatment processes. This paper presents a discussion of the most recent developments in alternative medical waste treatment, and includes data and descriptions of different vendors based on extensive research.

With the NFPA 99 and JCAHO requirements for minimum loads on generators during testing, hospital engineers are finding that oversized standby generators can mean operational problems. This document explains the oversized generator problem, including the code changes that gave birth to the problem. Some practical suggestions for sizing generators are then provided.

The objective of this compendium is to assist ASHE members in determining which electrical safety requirements pertain to their hospitals. Relevant requirements in consensus standards on hospital electrical safety are summarized in annotated form. The requirements contained in the different standards are grouped by area of the hospital and by topic.

Periodically, ASHE undertakes a study of its membership in order to collect demographic member information, gauge its service to the membership, and track member perception of association activities. The 1992 membership survey included a strong emphasis on job function, which produced information on compensation by job function. What follows in this document are the results of that survey--the average compensation by job function within various other factors such as geographic location, organization type/size, experience, education, and several other criteria.

The focus of the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration Standard: Permit-Required Confined Spaces (29 CFR 1910.146) is to protect workers who enter and work in areas with immediate health or safety risk from toxic, explosive, and/or asphyxiating atmospheres. The rule mandates that employers identify all permit-required confined spaces in their workplaces, prevent unauthorized entry into them, and develop a program to protect workers during authorized entry. Included in this standard are requirements for the content, issuance, and retention of entry permits; the provision of standby attendants; arrangements for rescue and other emergency services; the communication of hazards to workers (including contractors' employees); and appropriate training and equipment for authorized entrants, attendants, and entry supervisors.

Since the Safe Medical Devices Act of 1990 was signed into law, a great deal of confusion has surrounded it. This document reviews the current status of user reporting and device tracing--including the MEDWatch program--and the status of the final regulations. In addition, readers will learn what it all really means for hospitals and what incidents must now be reported to the FDA.