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05/18/2018

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‘Spring Cleaning’ is Crucial to Meeting UCAOA Accreditation Standards

By Joseph Chow, MD, President, Ambulatory Care

Because I’m in Buffalo where we are under a winter storm warning with up to six inches of snow as of this April 18 authorship, I say “spring” with a chilled sarcasm. However, let this time of year be a reminder and prompt to start readying ourselves and our facilities for the upcoming warmer seasons. We also have the pleasure of undergoing our UCAOA accreditation survey this week, which is another prompt to review that our facilities are up to date.

A Few Spring Tips:

  • Look through all your policy and procedure books to ensure they appropriately reflect your current business.
  • Know the safe zones to gather in case of facility evacuation.
  • Minimize your computer screen or put a cover sheet on any paper chart to ensure that no patient health information (PHI) is visible to anyone outside the clinicians caring for the patient.
  • Familiarize yourself (again) with your crash cart.
  • Ensure that anaphylaxis kits are all properly stocked and readied for the inevitable cases.
  • Ensure all expired medications and supplies are properly removed—even if you don’t think there are any.
  • Have your staff help you. We put up clipboards where the staff can inform us of what is missing, broken and who took care of it and when.

I have no doubt that our facilities will do great at our accreditation survey, and everyone can do these few things above. I do, however, have doubt that spring will come anytime soon here in Buffalo.