Complying with the Joint Commission’s 2008 Emergency Management Standards

Susan B. McLaughlin, MBA, CHSP, FASHE, President, SBM Consulting

Summary
The Joint Commission significantly revised their emergency management standards for 2008 in response to their evaluation of many recent emergencies that have impacted hospitals across the country. They are applicable to acute care hospitals, critical access hospitals, and long term care organizations. ASHE’s Emergency Management Handbook, second edition, addresses many aspects of emergency management, including Joint Commission compliance. This document is intended to be a companion “quick reference” for compliance and does not include additional suggestions or tips to enhance emergency management activities. This document contains information on compliance with EC.4.11 – EC.4.18 and EC.4.20. The description of compliance activities provides one or more means of compliance, but there may be others as well. It is NOT intended to describe only one correct way to comply. All of these suggestions should be cast into the organization’s own methods of emergency response using language appropriate to the organization; they should not be used verbatim. It is very important that an organization’s Emergency Operations Plan and associated documentation reflect its current practice.

• Click here for the entire monograph