New Unannounced Inspections Scare Hospitals; EquipSystems Prepares Facilities to Maintain the Highest Standards

New Unannounced Inspections Scare Hospitals; EquipSystems Prepares Facilities to Maintain the Highest Standards

Large organizations rely on specialized services like EquipSystems to provide cost savings and better service than in-house alternatives. Hospitals are big businesses, and keeping facilities clean 24x7 is now an even bigger priority in the New York metro area, due to some new JCAHO regulations. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will begin making unannounced inspection visits to hospitals starting January 2006. This change is intended to ensure that facilities are maintaining mandatory levels of cleanliness and safety all year long. Hospitals that hire EquipSystems to clean their non-electrical rolling stock have less to worry about in regards to the new visit schedule. They can also better allocate their time and money to more critical and urgent healthcare services.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) March 26, 2005

Hospitals will now need to be more vigilant than ever when it comes to the cleanliness of their equipment and facilities. JCAHO, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, has announced that their hospital inspectors will begin making unannounced visits. 2005 is a transition year – hospitals may volunteer for the unannounced visits which will become mandatory beginning in January 2006. This news has many healthcare facilities in a state of panic – how will they maintain the highest levels of cleanliness for their patients each and every day?

For the past 51 years, JCAHO has announced their inspections, allowing hospital management to prepare for their visits. In response to an industry-wide demand for improvement, the new unannounced JCAHO inspections force hospitals to consistently maintain a clean and safe Environment of Care for patients. Hospitals must now uphold a high level of cleanliness and safety 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Most hospitals will need to address the level of care they currently provide for their patients. Even some of the most well-known hospitals in the U. S. have been known to go to drastic measures to elude inspectors and pass JCAHO regulations. Without advance warning of visits, hospitals canÂ’t hide anymore. 

Maintaining the level of excellence needed to pass JCAHO or DPH inspections will be difficult for hospitals already dealing with deficits, budget gaps and insufficient staffing. Management must focus on the hospitalÂ’s core services and there just is not enough time or money to devote to in-house cleaning that will pass the demanding new inspection schedule. A cost effective, value adding alternative, is outsourcing.

EquipSystems

EquipSystems is unbelievably, the only company of its type in the U. S. – a hospital equipment management and care company that maintains non-electrical hospital rolling stock. EquipSystems is not only a trusted industry partner, but also a solution to the changing market environment and new inspection schedule.

Many hospitals have been employing EquipSystems to complement their in-house efforts for decades. When hospitals partner with EquipSystems on a programmatic basis, administration and staff can be confident that JCAHO inspectors will find their equipment well maintained, safe and clean. Proper equipment care reduces the potential for nosocomial infections and injuries, saves hospitals money, and increases labor efficiency. EquipSystems can reduce equipment maintenance costs, increase the depreciable life of the equipment, and achieve higher asset utilization.

EquipSystems works at hospitals on-site, managing and cleaning items such as stretchers, wheel chairs, medicine carts and IV poles. Trained professionals use ultrasonic cleaning techniques on each piece of equipment. Debris in joints and wheels are removed, broken parts are repaired or replaced, and working parts are inspected and lubricated. EquipSystems provides customers with an online database to help manage the maintenance process and simplify record-keeping for regulatory agencies such as JCAHO and DPH.

“We help hospitals manage their inventory. Equipment like wheelchairs and stretchers are a concern in hospitals. Everyone uses them, yet it is not always clear who, if anyone, is responsible for them,” says EquipSystems president, Chris Wilkerson. “EquipSystems is a crucial partner for hospitals in today’s budget conscious environment. Hospital staff and administration will see a direct impact on their facility, and a return on their investment. The new unannounced inspections are a problem for many hospitals. We are the solution. The goal is to improve the Environment of Care for patients - the ones who really matter in the medical industry,” says Wilkerson.

EquipSystems is a hospital equipment management and care company based in Brooklyn, New York, that has been servicing the top hospitals in the Northeast for the past twenty years, with customers throughout Boston, metro New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington, D. C. The marked success and continuous growth of EquipSystems provides a testament to the value of the services they provide. For more information, please visit www. equipsystems. com.

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