• Article of the Month
  
  • Consistent Interpretation: Joint Commission Surveyors’ Observations on EC.02.06.01, EP 1[®] Perspectives March 2016 ● Volume 36 ● Number 3, Pg 5  EC.02.06.01 requires hospitals to establish and maintain a “safe, functional environment”.  This is a perfectly reasonable and even noble expectation, but it is also a very broad one. Possibly because of that broadness, it was the most frequently cited standard for all accredited hospitals in 2015 and among the top 10 for our psychiatric hospitals as well.  In September 2015, the Joint Commission’s Clarifications and Expectations column authored by George Mills (Director of Engineering) stated “A surveyor will score EP 1 if he or she discovers anything unsafe (our emphasis) in the patient care environment—which comprises the spaces where the patients live and cohabitate and guests visit.”  We have found this in particular to be the case when ligature point and other hanging hazards are uncovered. This past December, TJC to devote its 3rd offering in the new Physical Environment Portal to further clarifying and offering compliance enhancing recommendations for EC.02.06.01.  Now TJC has dedicated the second installment of its new column, ‘Consistent Interpretation’ to sharing more guidance with its surveyors and the field about the approach to this challenging standard.  TJC is clearly concerned about the field’s difficulty with this standard and has invested a fair amount of time, effort and ink into it.  Are those efforts helpful?  Are they relevant to psychiatric hospitals? Has your facility taken advantage of any of the resources referenced above?  Should you?  Take a closer look at the surveyor insights in this article and let us know what you think
    
  • Click here for our REVIEW(Mbr/Guest); the FULL TJC ARTICLE(Mbr); to share a COMMENT(Mbr/Guest).

**RECOMMENDED READING:

1. PR: Clarifying…TJC Pain Assessment Standards (PDF/QV)[REF:MD, RN]
2. PR: Consistent Interpretation (EC.02.06.01) (PDF/QV) [REF: AOM, EC]
   
3. TS: Complying with… QSA.02.11.01 for Laboratories (PDF/QV) [REF: Lab, SC]
4. EC: Safety PreparAthon…  (PDF/QV)[REF: EC, SC, StEd]
5. NRI: Reading A Control Chart – Guidance For Users (PDF/QV)[REF: NRI, PI]
   

**USEFUL UPDATES, LINKS & DOWNLOADS:

• TJC: Consultants’ Participation During Survey Restricted to Observation Only [“Effective immediately…organizations are required to respond to surveyors’ questions without relying on the assistance of outside individuals”. Perspectives March 2016 ● Volume 36 ● Number 3, page 2]
  
• TJC: Sentinel Event Alert 56: Detecting and treating suicide ideation in all settings (PDF) February 24, 2016
  
• NPSF: RCA2: Improving Root Cause Analyses and Actions to Prevent Harm
  
• The Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. The National Pain Strategy: a comprehensive population health-level strategy for pain. 2015
• Latest TJC Blogs: Physician Leader Monthly – Leadership Blog
  

**SupporTips