ASHE, Joint Commission collaborate on portal

A new online resource from ASHE and Joint Commission offers information for addressing the most commonly cited Joint Commission physical environment standards.

To help facility staff comply with the top eight physical environment standards cited by the Joint Commission, the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), Chicago, and the Joint Commission, Oak Brook, Ill., are collaborating to provide valuable online resources.

The Joint Commission has created a portal to house resources related to physical environment issues cited in its facility surveys. ASHE will provide resources on a new Focus on Compliance website, including tools, best practices and technical documents.

“ASHE is proud to collaborate with the Joint Commission to provide focused tools and resources to assist organizations in achieving compliance and high reliability,” says Dale Woodin, CHFM, FASHE, who is senior executive director at ASHE.

He says the new websites will provide educational content to facility management professionals to raise the awareness of hospital leaders to the risks and patient impacts of unreliable facility systems.

“To meet the goal, every two months we will focus on a standard, providing information to highlight the compliance expectations, background on the systems or processes evaluated in that standard, and offering examples of compliance,” Woodin says.

The first month of the cycle will focus on the facility management aspects of the standard and the second month will focus on leadership awareness, by providing an executive summary of risk, impact and mitigation, he says.

The Joint Commission’s website (www.jointcommission.org/topics/the_physical_environment.aspx) will address what is expected for compliance, Woodin says.  The ASHE Focus site (www.ashe.org/compliance) will provide peer-to-peer examples of successful compliance.

The first resource on utility systems is expected to be available this month on the ASHE website. Other upcoming standards to be covered include means of egress in October and November, the built environment in December and January, and fire protection in February and March with more to follow.

The new resource was announced at the 52nd ASHE Annual Conference & Technical Exhibition.