Trends in health care from a facility perspective

Two new ASHE monographs tackle important health care topics: patients’ perceptions of their care and managing medical equipment.

With the transition from volume-based to value-based reimbursement and a greater focus on new models of care and population health, hospitals and health care organizations are intent on finding even more ways to improve the patient care experience.

Facility professionals affect the patient experience in several ways, from providing natural light to keeping patient rooms at comfortable temperatures. The new monograph “HCAHPS Scores, the Patient Experience, and the Affordable Care Act from the Facility Perspective” explores the ways physical environments affect patient satisfaction.

Author Lynn Kenney, ASHE senior analyst for advocacy, provides the terminology, research and resources needed for facility professionals to understand the HCAHPS program. It includes improvements health care organizations across the country have made, providing inspiration to facility professionals looking to help their organizations improve the patient experience.

In the second new monograph from ASHE, “Risk Assessment of Medical Equipment,” author John Collins, FASHE, HFDP, explores risk assessment of medical equipment — a key part of the Joint Commission’s Environment of Care Management Plans. This monograph presents a framework for an efficient risk assessment plan.

Risk assessments of medical equipment must be based on data and must consider potential physical risks of the equipment’s use, function and incident history. Collins, who recently retired as ASHE’s engineering and compliance director, analyzed years of medical equipment repair work orders from various hospitals as well as Food and Drug Administration data to complete the updated monograph.

This monograph contains three sections. The first part, on maintenance risk assessment, compares the use of computerized risk management databases with qualitative scoring of risk assessment parameters. The second part deals with physical risk assessment and examines different approaches to assigning risk scores. The last section analyzes parts replacement in a medical management program.

ASHE members can download both publications for free from the ASHE Resource Library at www.ashe.org/resourcelibrary. Nonmembers can purchase the monographs at www.ashestore.com.

Patrick J. Andrus, CAE, is ASHE’s deputy executive director of operations.

ASHE INSIGHTS

Important monographs available from ASHE

Following are two recently released monographs that can be accessed by ASHE members as free PDFs at www.ashe.org/resources/management_monographs.

• Life Safety Code Comparison. The 2012 edition of the National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Code offers new design and compliance options for health care facilities that didn’t exist in previous editions. It provides an exhaustive list of the changes in the new edition and a detailed comparison with the 2000 and 2009 editions.

• Managing Hospital Emergency Power Systems: Testing, Operation, Maintenance, Vulnerability Mitigation, and Power Failure Planning. Hospitals must take a holistic approach to emergency power (EP) systems, blending utility management with emergency management and infrastructure master planning. This monograph describes a complete EP system management program intended to satisfy these needs.

Design guidelines available to industry through ASHE

The 2014 editions of the Facility Guidelines Institute’s Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities and the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities can be purchased at www.ASHEstore.com.