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    Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook: Managing Code Requirements for Fire and Life Safety
    Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook: Managing Code Requirements for Fire and Life Safety
    Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook: Managing Code Requirements for Fire and Life Safety
    Ebook150 pages1 hour

    Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook: Managing Code Requirements for Fire and Life Safety

    By Dale Lyman

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    About this ebook

    Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook: Managing Code Requirements for Fire and Life Safety helps guide ASC administrative and security staff meet the requirements and standards of both federal and state authorities, including the Life Safety Code, a critical designation for facilities participating in Medicare (CMS) funding reimbursement. Designed for easy reference, the book assumes no code knowledge on the part of ASC staff, and provides guidance for the policies, emergency plans, drills, inspection, testing and maintenance of fire protection and building systems necessary for meeting Life Safety Code requirements.

    Through sample checklists and log sheets, and a systematic process for completing required documentation, the reader is directed through the crucial steps to achieving code compliance. The guide provides ASC staff the knowledge necessary to be in compliance with the Life Safety Code without the need for an outside security or safety consultant. Through this compliance, facilities remain licensed and qualified for Medicare reimbursement, ultimately improving the financial success of the ASC.

    • Illuminates the requirements of the Life Safety Code for ASCs for medical and other administrative staff who possess no code knowledge in the ASC setting
    • Includes compliance requirements for the code, as well as requirements placed upon facilities desiring to participate in Medicare (CMS) funding reimbursement
    • Provides sample checklists and log sheets for each type of system
    • Outlines a systematic process for completing the documentation required of ASCs for inspection, testing and maintenance of facility systems crucial to achieving code compliance
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherElsevier Science
    Release dateSep 20, 2017
    ISBN9780128044872
    Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook: Managing Code Requirements for Fire and Life Safety
    Author

    Dale Lyman

    Dale Lyman, CFPS, CBO, CFM, is a 31-year fire service veteran who is the Fire Chief of a Northern Colorado fire department, and served as a Fire Marshal for 14 years. He is a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS), International Code Council Certified Building Code Official, Certified Fire Marshal, and Certified Fire Code Official. An experienced incident commander, he served on the operations side of the fire department as a company officer, a battalion commander and the Emergency Manager of the City, and was the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Fire Department for 14 years. As the PIO he has written dozens of Op-ed columns for the local newspaper on fire safety topics and has published two articles in national fire service trade journals. He is currently a member of two national fire and life safety code committees responsible for writing and revising future editions of the two codes that most directly impact health care facilities in the U. S.; the NFPA 101 Life safety Code and NFPA 99 Health Care Facilities Code. He also serves on the NFPA 99 Health Care Facilities Code Technical Committees for Fundamentals and Emergency Management/Security. He was recently selected as a member of the NFPA Building Fire Safety Systems Section Executive Committee. Additionally, he has conducted fire and life safety surveys for a health care accreditation agency at Ambulatory Surgery Centers throughout the U.S. In this role he applied his unique personal firefighting experiences in educating surgery center staffs in code requirements and the reasons behind the requirements, drawing from experiences at actual fires.

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      Book preview

      Ambulatory Surgery Center Safety Guidebook - Dale Lyman

      India

      Chapter 1

      Fire and Life Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers

      Abstract

      ASC patients are anesthetized and their physical mobility is impaired, so they would be unable to escape from a dangerous situation such as a fire. Surgical procedure sites and fields are ripe for an unwanted, unexpected fire. Because all three basic elements necessary for combustion are present—fuel, oxygen, and an ignition source (often lasers)—a flash fire can occur unexpectedly during a critical procedure. All ASCs serving Medicare beneficiaries must be certified by the Medicare program, and are inspected or surveyed for compliance with fire and life safety codes. The objective of this guidebook is to provide a basic understanding of the overall fire and life safety code requirements for staff members of ambulatory surgery centers. The information and templates will provide an understanding and tools to help prepare for inspections and surveys.

      Keywords

      Fire

      Requirements

      Safety

      Facility

      Staff

      Introduction

      There are over 5260 ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in the United States, and 5723 hospitals, and these numbers are increasing each year. Technological and cultural trends in health care have shifted the majority of surgery to the outpatient environment, and an aging population is also driving the growth in demand for surgical procedures in general. Similar to other health care organizations, ASCs are highly regulated by federal and state entities. The fire and life safety in ASCs is evaluated by independent observers, inspectors, and surveyors for state licensure, Medicare certification, and voluntary accreditation; therefore code compliance is essential for a facility’s existence and survival.

      Vulnerability of Patients and Risk

      Fire and life safety codes place ASCs under intensive scrutiny because of the vulnerability of the patient population occupying these facilities. The procedures performed are often comparable to those performed in surgical suites in hospitals; the difference is that ASC patients are discharged after a short recovery period following their procedure, with no overnight stay at the facility. Because the patients are anesthetized and their physical mobility is impaired, they would be unable to escape from a dangerous situation such as a fire. They may even be on life support equipment and being monitored by critical care personnel. During a given period of time, these patients are totally dependent on staff members for physical assistance to evacuate them and to reach safety in an emergency situation.

      Dangerous Environments

      Fires in health care environments are not uncommon. Between 2006 and 2010, an average of 6240 fires occurred in medical facilities each year, resulting in six deaths, 171 injuries, and $52.1 million in direct property damage annually in the United States.¹ Codes and regulations are very stringent in ASCs for two reasons. The first, as mentioned above, is because many patients may not have the physical ability to escape a fire. The second is due to the many fire and life safety hazards found within health care environments. These two conditions combine to create a very high level of risk. This is why the strict set of codes has been written, to mitigate those risks. One of those hazards is the medical gasses found in an ASC. Oxygen, which is not flammable as a single element but acts as an oxidizer and a catalyst to the combustion process, can contribute to extremely dangerous, fast-moving fires. In other words, oxygen will greatly increase the intensity of the combustion process (fire). Even inert gasses, such as nitrogen, commonly found in health care environments could create a dangerous scenario if they were to leak within an enclosed space by displacing and reducing the oxygen level, as this would cause a risk of

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