Interview with Safety Health Officer – Term Paper

Q: What is your profession and in which organization do you work

A: I am a nurse practitioner in Brookwood Medical Centre in Jefferson Country, Alabama State. It is one of the hospitals owned, leased or operated by Tenet Healthcare Corporation (Tenet Healthcare Corporation, 2013).  I have worked there for the last three years.

Q: How would you rate Brookwood Medical Centre regarding how it adheres to state, federal and accreditation regulations 

A: I would say that this hospital is exemplary. All the medical and surgical services and practices are governed and regulated by clear and unambiguous procedures, processes and regulations that must be followed by all health care professionals and departments. The hospital has implemented committees of staff to supervise the various departments, healthcare facilities. The supervisory work of the committees is overseen by the hospital governing board whose members are community members and physicians. This ensures that all professionals, departments, and facilities have no option but follow all the set procedures and processes because apart from the committees there are also clinical quality personnel who review and ensures maintenance of standard and quality care.

Q: Briefly enlighten me on some of the significant policies and procedures in place that ensure Brookwood Medical Centre’s compliance with state, federal, and accreditation regulations

A: Brookwood Medical Centre has been expanding its operations and services to ensure access to quality services to patients. As the state of Alabama requires of such expansion, the hospital always acquires a certificate of need requirement. This document outlines the need for additional r new facilities, building or service. For instance, this was the case when the hospital constructed a new facility for hospice department mid last year where it had to request for state approval and get the necessary certificates from government agencies. This procedure is stipulated in the hospital’s expansion regulations. Brookwood Medical Centre also adheres to federal, state and local government rules and regulations on environmental matters. There are standards and regulations set to be followed in regards to disposal of solid waste, storage of medicine, machinery, and transportation of toxic and hazardous materials such as radiological materials among others. Also Brookwood Medical Centre is strict on compliance and ethics. There are set procedures, rules and regulations that must be followed by the staff, the hospital in general, physicians and outpatient centers that are in line with state, federal and industry laws and regulation of health care service provision. The healthcare professionals are governed and must comply with standards code of conduct and vocational and ethical guidelines provided and summarized by the hospital’s ethics and compliance department. This code of conduct stipulates on patient-doctor relationship, professionalism, physician and nurse responsibility, quality care, patient choice and freedom among other significant issues (Tenet Healthcare Corporation, 2013).

Q: Does your organization have an emergency preparedness plan and if yes what does it entail?

A: Brookwood Medical Centre has a clear emergency/ disaster plan whose purpose is to ensure the hospital is prepared to respond to a major disaster affecting the country or community around where it operates. The emergency plan is put into action when the number of sick or injured patients exceeds the capacity of the hospital under normal operations. The contingency plan touches on various departments which may be involved in any emergency situation such as administration, security department, medical staff, emergency department and volunteers (Adini, Goldberg, Laor, Cohen, Zadok & Bar-Dayan, 2006).  The plan also outlines the duties of various professionals like liaison officer, safety officer, incident command officer and operations, logistics and planning chiefs as well as the general staff. The plan outlines how the various departments should work together in case of an emergency to respond and contain the incident. The plan also gives procedures on how to evaluate and notify the hospital of an external or internal emergency, alert the involved parties, activate and apply the emergency plan, the responsibilities of various departments and personnel, space and ambulatory utilization, contamination control among other issues.

Comparing the Brookwood Medical Centre’s emergency preparedness plan with my organization’s current preparedness plan

After contacting the interview with an NP at Brookwood Medical Centre, I realized that the hospital has a more inclusive, precise and elaborative emergency preparedness plan compared to my organization. However, the two institutions have emergency preparedness that put down procedures and processes on how to handle external and internal emergency situations. They both touch on different departments, staff, and stakeholders involved in an internal and external hospital emergency.

References

Adini, B., Goldberg, A., Laor, D., Cohen, R., Zadok, R., ; Bar-Dayan, Y. (2006). Assessing levels of hospital emergency preparedness. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 21(06), 451-457.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation (2013). The United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Washington, DC