Russell Harbaugh

EOC/Life Safety Officer Accreditation
St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center
Boise, Idaho

Biography

I began my career working for Morrison Knudson Co. as a Design Draftsman after which I joined my father in his landscaping business. I worked with him for several years before starting my own Landscaping Business, specializing in larger commercial office parks and homeowner's associations. I eventually sold my business to Perma-Green Lawn Care and joined their team as the Director of their Northwest landscape division, servicing seven western locations.

My career in healthcare began when I was hired at St. Luke's in March of 1999 as the Manager of Facilities Maintenance. I now manage the Environment of Care program at the Boise, Meridian, and Eagle hospitals, and all associated ambulatory care clinic locations (76) throughout Ada and Canyon counties. I am the Life Safety Officer for St. Luke's Boise and Meridian and serve in a consultant role for the other hospitals, located in Magic Valley, McCall and Wood River, within the St. Luke's Health System. St. Luke's Boise/ Meridian successfully completed their first unannounced Joint Commission survey in 2008. I played an integral role in the success of this survey and as a result the hospital did not receive any RFIs in the Environment of Care or Life Safety Code. In 2010 we had our first CMS survey in 27 years, in Life Safety and Environment of Care we received no deficiencies. I currently chair the Interim Life Safety Committee, Utility, Life Safety, and Clinical Equipment Subcommittee, and the EOC Committee chairman. I participate regularly in the Emergency Management Subcommittee and am solely responsible for the hospital's fire response plans and staff education. Some of the training that I have received as part of my current responsibilities includes:

NFPA 101 Healthcare
Applying NFPA 101/Life Safety Code to the Joint Commission SOC.
OSHA Compliance
ASHE-Joint Commission Environment of Care
ISHE conferences (various education)
ASHE conferences (various education)
All ICS training

I am actively involved in the Idaho Society of Healthcare Engineers and have had the pleasure of being the president /vice president for the past four years. My participation has included speaking on various Environment of Care/ Life Safety Code topics, including grounds maintenance and facility budgeting. I have also coordinated and organized the past four regional meetings, with participants from over 52 hospitals within Idaho.

Being actively involved in the healthcare engineering community and other community organizations is of great importance to me. Such participation includes:

• Past President and founder of the Idaho Landscape Maintenance Association
• Member of ASHE, NFPA, Professional Grounds Management Society, and the American Nursery Association.
• Executive Board of Director's for the Boy Scouts of America

Personal Letter

Dear fellow ASHE members,

I am honored to be nominated for the Region 10 ASHE Representative for 2012-2013. Being part of this great organization for the last 10 years has been a huge benefit to me in my professional career. I am a firm believer that strength comes in numbers and with ASHE’s membership reaching nearly 10,000 members we are strong. I have seen recent growth result from good leadership and visions of helping members grow with quality educational programs, sound strategic planning and involvement in codes and standards on national and local levels.

I am the past President of the Idaho Society for Healthcare Engineering (ISHE) where we follow the examples set by ASHE. I have attended the chapter leadership sessions from the last four years and have taken away numerous ideas that have added to our own society’s success. Under my leadership, we have developed our own strategic plan focusing on education, membership growth and vendor relations. Our last four symposiums have been very successful despite these trying economical times; we still have managed to see new growth. Our focus has been on the needs of our members and how we can help them in doing their jobs better everyday. As president we have opposed the State of Idaho Department of Safety and Standards successfully dissuading them from imposing fees for boiler inspections and other costs. We have also gone before the House State Affairs Committee when some in the Legislature wanted to remove the State Fire Marshals authority to inspect private structures. The bill was killed and we were able to save thousands of dollars for hospital inspections. As President, I was very active in helping members save money in these aforementioned projects and many other projects proving to their CEO’s that their membership is of great value. I have seen these examples set by members of ASHE leadership also.

Through the many educational programs that I have attended, I have been able to stay in touch with codes and standards helping me in my own position here at St. Luke’s Boise/Meridian Medical Center where I serve as the EOC/Life Safety Officer. I have successfully been through three Joint Commission surveys in my 12 years here at the hospital. Two year ago was our first unannounced survey where we came through without any RFI’s in the Environment of Care, (which is pretty amazing for two million plus square feet). We were just recently surveyed by CMS and came away without any citations as well. I was able to put together one on the most comprehensive Building Maintenance Programs that our surveyor had ever seen, fashioned after that which the Joint Commission had suggested in one of ASHE’s educational programs. I currently chair the Interim Life Safety Committee, Utility/ Life Safety/ and Clinical Equipment Subcommittee and the EOC Committee. I participate regularly in the Emergency Management Subcommittee and am solely responsible for the hospital’s fire response plans and staff education. I also chair the SOC committee where we review the SOC on semi annual bases.

As a member of ASHE and ISHE, I see the value of an association and it’s membership.
If elected to the position of Regional 10 Representative I pledge my commitment to support ASHE and its members.

Sincerely,

Russell L. Harbaugh