• Article of the Month
  
  • Strategies for Conducting a Proactive Risk Assessment[®] The Source, August 2014, Vol 12, #8, Pg 1 [Recommended for: PI, Phrm/P&T] – A Joint Commission suggestion/encouragement is often close to a recommendation and sometimes not far from a requirement.  In that context, we have selected our latest Article-Of-the-Month so that we could suggest some additional compliance strategies.  After reading the article (or at least our review), we would encourage you to consider performing a proactive risk assessment every 12 months instead of every 18 months.  Although more frequent than required, you can make the process less burdensome by doing more focused/less comprehensive/less cumbersome analysis, using one of the tools identified in this article.  This will increase your opportunities to improve quality and safety while also positioning your hospital to impress TJC surveyors with its commitment to become a High-Reliability Organization.
    
  • Click here for our REVIEW(Mbr/Guest); the FULL TJC ARTICLE(Mbr); to share a COMMENT(Mbr/Guest).

**RECOMMENDED READING:

1. PR: Prevalence of Unsafe Injection Practices in Health  Ftxt  [REF:IC, P&T, RN]+2 Tools from CLSH
   
2. TS: Strategies for…Proactive Risk Assessment  Ftxt  [REF: Phrm/P&T, PI]
3. TS: Safely Manage Look-Alike/Sound-Alike Medications  Ftxt  [REF: BHC, E&M, IC]
4. TS: Tracer: Waived Testing in a Critical Access Hospital   Ftxt  [REF: IC, P&T, RN]
5. TS: CJCP: The RC Chapter  Ftxt  [REF: CJCP, IM, SW]
   
6. EC: C&E: The Role of HVAC Systems in… Patient Safety  Ftxt   [REF: EOC, SFT]
7. EC: Test Driving Your New Building  Ftxt   [REF: EOC, LDR, MD, RN, SFT]

**USEFUL LINKS & DOWNLOADS:

• CDC: ‘One & Only Campaign‘ (Print Materials/AudioVisuals/Social Media/Toolkits)
• ISMP: Risk Assessment for Medication Safety
  
• CMS S&C:12-35-All Safe Use of Single Dose/Single Use Medications to Prevent HAIs
  
• Latest TJC Blogs: Physician Leader Monthly – Leadership Blog
  

**SupporTips

• S-Tip#20: Individualize your read with a Custom Information Feed (Part 1) – Would you like your Infection Preventionist/Specialist to be current on the most recent TJC articles related to Infection Control? Would you like your Medical and Nursing Directors to be aware of the hot TJC topics for medical staff and nursing?  Perhaps it is approaching survey time and you would like Leaders, your P&T or Safety Committee to be able to anticipate the topics that surveyors might raise in the interviews and tracers they will face?  SPHCC members have access to a unique reference tool for those situations.  We have identified and collected our recent reviews related to 19 topical areas to help you keep key staff up to date.  We call them Custom Information Feeds (CIF)!  Check out the full list of available topics and request the ones you want added to your hospital’s home page.