2004 Advisories and Alerts
FDA will accept comments on Bed Rail Entrapment Guidance until December 29, 2004
FDA announced that it will continue to accept comments to the draft document Hospital Bed System Dimensional Guidance to Reduce Entrapment for an addition 30 days. Hospitals, Long Term Care facilities, and other users of hospital beds are encouraged review the document and submit comments on the impact of these proposed dimensional limitations on their current hospital beds. ASHE submitted comments urging the FDA to limit the dimensional guidance only to the design of new beds rather then set retroactive limitations that would render nearly all hospitals beds currently in use to be out of compliance. Click here to review ASHE's comments and here to review the FDA Dimensional Guidance and submit comments
Battery-powered emergency lights are required only for new construction and renovation
It has recently come to ASHE's attention that a number of hospitals have been cited by JCAHO as non-compliant with the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code because they did not have one or more battery operated lights installed in each Operating Room and other anesthetizing areas. In each case, the anesthetizing areas had been in use as anesthetizing areas for many years. To correct this JCAHO citation, the hospitals were required to retroactively install battery-powered lights in these areas. ASHE believes that retroactive installation of battery-powered lights is a best practice, whose merit should be evaluated by each hospital, not a minimum code standard. At its November 16, 2004 meeting, the Healthcare Interpretations Task Force confirmed ASHE interpretation by ruling that battery-powered emergency light units are NOT required to be installed retroactively in each existing anesthetizing location. Click here to review the code research and substantiation
Medical Telemetry: FCC Extends Freeze on High Power Use in 460-470 MHz Band Until Dec. 31, 2005
The American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association (AHA) is pleased to advise that on July 8, 2004 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) extended the freeze on high power use of the 460-470 MHz band until December 31, 2005. More...
JCAHO issues Clarification on Surveying of USP 797
The June 2004 Joint Commission Perspectives provides a clarification to the expectations outlined in the April 2004 Perspectives establishing July 1, 2004 as the implementation date of surveys for USP 797 requirements. The June Perspectives states that, "The Joint Commission will expect compliance with all its standards where the current requirements are already identical to USP-NF 797." The clarification states that JCAHO expects organizations to assess any significant risks by July 1 and "implement the more basic elements of the plan." It goes on to state, "facility-based requirements of the USP-NF 797, only need to be planned for future implementation." More...
NFPA Approves Alcohol Hand Rub Amendment
On April 28, 2004, the NPFA announced the amendment of the 2000 and 2003 editions of the Life Safety Code (LSC) to specifically recognize and permit the use of alcohol-based hand rub solutions in patient rooms, corridors, and suites of healthcare facilities. This amendment is the result of a yearlong advocacy effort led by ASHE in collaboration with the AHA, CDC, APIC, SHEA, and other members of the infection control and fire safety community. More...