Summary Session and Additional Questions and Answers

This series will familiarize participants with The Joint Commission’s Environment of Care® Standards for 2008 and beyond, as well as explain how to efficiently integrate the new standards into your existing program. Participants will receive an SMS Inc. 2008 EC Toolbox™ — a CD-R with 27 sections covering the entire range of E.C. standards. This disk has more than 500 sample data collection tools, forms, policies, procedures, reports, management plans, annual evaluations, tracers, survey preparation tools and much more. Participants are encouraged to take these survey-proven aids and use them in their respective facilities as templates for their survey presentation materials.

The series will include the significant body of changes found in the Emergency Management section of the 2008 standards. New guidelines will be reviewed, including HICS & NIMS-oriented elements, and participants will learn how to build a rock-solid EM program. In addition, the presenters will revisit the Fire Safety (EC.5.10 – EC.5.50) requirements and introduced even more tools and ideas for addressing The Joint Commission’s Life Safety Code Specialist Surveyor. Within the Fire Safety/Life Safety Code segment, the speakers will address the nuances of developing the Statement of Conditions™ and the technical specifications of complying with the electronic SOC process.

The series will review The Joint Commission’s "Tracer Methodology" process and how facilities will need to account for it in their survey preparations. Practical solutions will be emphasized for addressing The Joint Commission’s requirements for the development and maintenance of management plans, risk assessments, performance measures, annual evaluations, emergency management/disaster preparedness and pre-construction risk assessment. The primary objectives of this session will be for participants to come away with strategies to achieve the best survey results possible and to have a clear understanding of how to maintain compliance between surveys.