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 WSSHE NEWSLINE
Volume 54 | Fall 2006
Contents
President’s Message
Room of Horrors
WSSHE Recognition
President’s Message:
Fellow Members,
As we enter the 2006 holiday season and prepare for the year ahead I would like
to take time to thank you for the confidence you have shown in allowing me to
lead the organization into and through 2007. The momentum of the organization is
at full steam ahead as planning for both education and advocacy efforts are well
underway. I feel confident as I had stated at the annual conference that 2007
will be as exciting and productive as 2006.
I would like to use this forum to inform you of issues and opportunities that
are leading our planning for education and advocacy into the next year.
1) Energy Management:
ASHE, Energy Star, and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance have asked for
WSSHE to support development of, test, and lead the Pacific Northwest in
implementing their respective organizations strategic energy management
initiatives.
NEEA has created a program designed to support the development of a strategic
energy master plan for healthcare organizations. In early December ten WSSHE –
member hospitals will meet with NEEA to review, tune, and assist in planning the
introduction of these materials to hospital facility and engineering programs
throughout the State. The ten hospitals were chosen by region, demographic, and
size, to ensure the information can be utilized by all engineering and facility
departments’ state wide. If given the opportunity and after the approval of the
supporting member hospitals, NEEA would like to take the program and integrate
training sessions into the respective chapters training and education schedules.
ASHE and Energy Star have partnered together with what is referred to as the E2C
(Energy Efficiency Commitment) Program. E2C is sharing of fundamental concepts,
real data, proven strategies, financial tools, and local success stories by ASHE
members. It can provide you the expert knowledge of where to dig to uncover the
energy savings inherent in your building design and operations with the minimum
goal of saving your organization 10% or more in utility costs.
After reviewing both programs thoroughly I see real value in merging the two
initiatives. Both programs are good on there own but together they provide a
complete package that includes- training and education, implementation tools and
tracking programs, best practices and support networks, and most importantly
like-in-kind facility comparison resources.
I have contacted both Dale Woodin, Executive Director of ASHE and Jennifer
Stout, Market Manager for NEEA, and have asked that ASHE, the EPA, Energy Star,
and NEEA meet to discuss the opportunity for a joint program that can be
supported by WSSHE in 2007 and possibly 2008. All parties seemed genuinely
supportive of the idea and preliminary discussions have begun about a meeting in
December.
2) DOH Advocacy:
Within the next three weeks the final draft revised WAC regulation (with all the
changes from the public comment process) should be distributed for public
comment. We will put a small committee together to review the recommended
changes and then formulate a plan for our next direction.
There are significant issues at stake, for example the state may continuing
their past approach to survey our organizations while allowing the surveyor the
opportunity to cite us on retroactive application of new construction standards
(such as fire dampers, tamper resistant outlets, etc). This is very rarely done
with other state agencies, CMS, or JCAHO and is never done without significant
research, testing, data collection, specific dates for program integration, and
significant debate.
The draft document will be posted on the DOH website in the same section as the
report on proposals and comments. If you are interested in joining the review
panels please reach out to me or any board member and we will contact you with
our meeting plans.
3) Annual State Life Safety Inspections:
The State Fire Marshal is expressing interest in creating an annual inspection
of our facilities in lieu of life safety inspections by the DOH licensing
surveyors.
Even though I am an advocate for firm life safety standards, the additional
inspection would require additional unjustified coordination resources from our
facilities. JCAHO and their unannounced survey process, DOH and their annual
inspections, and our local fire marshals have done a great job ensuring we are
keeping our life safety standards at or even above code requirements. The
financial costs for inspection fees and lost time allocated to the inspection
are without merit, the existing agencies all have certified inspectors and the
gaps between the existing surveys or inspections ensure an issue or violation
will be caught quickly.
4) ASHE Membership:
WSSHE has maintained an impressive track record of obtaining the highest
recognition within ASHE’s levels of affiliation program – gold. In 2007, our
Region 10 Director Jody McQuade and I have challenged WSSHE to achieve platinum
status. The key feature of platinum is that 60% of WSSHE's Full Members must
also be in ASHE!!
At this time we have 56 WSSHE Members who are also ASHE members, out of a total
eligible WSSHE members of 187. This is 30%, only half of the required platinum
percentage of 60%. To reach platinum, we need another 60 WSSHE Full Members to
become ASHE members in 2006. Each of us is strongly encouraged to recommend ASHE
membership ($125/yr) to current WSSHE members. ASHE is and has been a great
partner of ours and I strongly encourage you to look at their website:
www.ashe.org . I will admit it
is my dream to become the first WSSHE president to reach this goal and I am
aggressively seeking your support. Just write the check, I promise it is a
significant investment in your facility, your leadership development, continuing
education, and your advocacy and issue awareness.
As you can see your Board of Directors is hard at work preparing for great
educational opportunities and important advocacy issues. We will continue to
develop our relationship with NEEA, the EPA, ASHE, and the WSHA as we lead not
only the State but also the country in both advocacy and education. There is
always room for your involvement and I encourage you to join the charge as
leadership at either the state or local level. Have a great end to 2006 and may
God bless you and your families as we move into 2007.
Fraternally yours,
Stephen J. Grose, CHFM, President
Washington State Society for Healthcare Engineering
Room of Horrors
Halloween is a scary time. St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute - Spokane, had
the opportunity to visit a special “Room of Horrors” of their own. The spooky
decorations included the usual Halloween fare of ghosts, goblins and cobwebs,
but it also included a multitude of safety issues. The challenge for staff was
to correctly identify as many potential safety issues as they possibly could.
They were told that the safety issues could involve patient safety, infection
control and environmental concerns. This was done so staff from all disciplines
would be able to recognize some of the examples of safety deficiencies. Staff
were encouraged to ask questions and work together to learn about the various
issues demonstrated. They were asked to record their observations on a form that
was provided.
The room was set up as a patient room with a mannequin in bed acting as the
patient. Examples of safety concerns included: patient smoking in bed, O2
cannula was improperly placed, patient had no identification band, janitor’s
cart was unattended with unlabeled chemical bottles, defective equipment was not
identified properly (wrong tag, insufficient information), wrong type of fire
extinguisher (BC instead of ABC), incorrect emergency flip chart and operator
contact number.
Employees were told that at least 30 safety issues were in the room. One person
creatively observed 52 potential safety concerns.
After completing the form, Halloween treats were provided to participants and
their name was entered in a drawing for the grand prize. Our Grand prize was a
gift card for gasoline.
The “Room of Horrors” was sponsored by the Safety Committee and was open for all
three shifts. The “Room” was well attended and staff was very enthusiastic about
the challenge and the learning opportunity.
WSSHE Recognition
Congratulations to the following WSSHE members for their work to achieve the
following recognition and distinction:
Bruce Alward, Associate Member of the Year
Mike Kelly, Member of the Year
Ray Tiedemann, Legacy (lifetime of WSSHE service) Award Winner
The WSSHE NEWSLINE is published quarterly as a service to WSSHE Members. The
purpose of the NEWSLINE is to promote the Society by sharing information of
interest to the Members. Please send brief articles or information updates to
the WSSHE Editor care of:
Geoffrey W. Glass PE, CHFM
Providence St. Peter Hospital
413 Lilly Road
Olympia, WA 98506-5166
email: geoffrey.glass@providence.org
FAX: 360-493-4043
Phone: 360-493-7722.
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