There are some important changes for healthcare facilities that participate in Joint Commission accreditation.
In July of this year, there will be new and revised emergency management (EM) standards and elements of performance (EP), applicable to hospitals and critical access hospitals. This comes after a comprehensive review and rewrites by The Joint Commission.
The existing EM chapter standards and elements of performance (EM.0.01.01 through EM.04.01.01) were deleted, replaced with new standards and supporting elements of performance. There are also some changes to the environment of care (LC) and leadership (LD) standards that involved emergency management.
So what does this mean for your facility? Here are a few bullet points to highlight just a few of the changes:
There are now nine (9) emergency management standard chapters (EM.09.01.01 through EM.17.01.01).
EM.13.01.01 covers requirements for hospitals to have a continuity of operations plan (COOP), based on hazards identified within its hazard vulnerably assessment (HVA).
The COOP needs to be developed with the participation of a multidisciplinary team of key executive leaders to include those of business, finance, and other departments. These leaders will need to be responsible for identifying and prioritizing key functions within the organization, including that outside of clinical care.
A COOP will need to identify how and where essential functions will continue to be provided.
The hospital will need a documented order of succession plan and also identify delegation of authority.
EM.14.01.01 requires hospitals to have a disaster recovery plan, to include strategies for when and how to conduct a damage assessment, restoration of critical systems and services, and return to full operations.
The disaster recovery plan describes how the hospital will address family reunification. It also addresses the need for the facility to coordinate with community partners to help locate and assist with the identification of individuals.
This brief overview just covered a few of the many alterations to the Emergency Management (EM) standards and Elements of Performance (EP’s). If you have additional questions or concerns regarding these changes and how it impacts your facility, please do not hesitate to reach out to a WB team member. We would be happy to chat about how we can assist your facility in becoming a more resilient (and compliant) healthcare organization.
our team has developed an Emergency Management standards crosswalk to assist in your understanding of the changes.
Fill out the form below to access your copy of our 2022 TJC Standards Crosswalk.
Additionally, on February 15th, 2022 our Vice President of Client Services, Christopher Sonne, hosted a webinar discussing the important revisions that have been made to the Emergency Management (EM) standards. You can access the replay here.
For more information on the revised emergency management standards, you can visit The Joint Commission website or click on the prepublication reports linked below.
Have a question? Send us an email at team@wakefieldbrunswick.com.