Market Education

Environmental Inspections in TIER

The Environmental Management component of TIER® Workflow enables organizations to automate outcomes of inspections for each building that it owns or operates. Inspection forms are included with this component for ongoing building inspections including general safety, life safety, and cleanliness. A copy of the Life Safety page of the inspection form is included below.

This form can be expanded to accommodate more in depth inspections. For example, if a two-page inspection is needed, a copy of the existing page can be made and new criteria be inserted on the new page. The form also includes a scoring program for each page with a cumulative score based on 100% compliance.

A copy of the Cleanliness inspection page is included below:

Copies of the equipment and vehicle inspection forms are included below:

The Environmental Management component is designed to automate environmental management information for each building. In this manner, a record is created for each building much like that of a clinical record or an employee record.

In addition, basic drill downs and reports are included with the component in order to summarize outcomes, analyze environmental management patterns and trends, and target actual or potential risk factors related to patient safety. The reports integrate operational information and findings from all buildings to provide a comprehensive environmental management performance picture for the entire organization.

This information will prove to be particularly relevant and useful to comply with the new JCAHO “Patient Safety Program” standards. Use of the Environmental Management and other three components of TIER® Workflow will facilitate development of a comprehensive patient safety program to address the new standards.

It is anticipated that the new standards can be primarily addressed through drill downs and reports rather than changes in policies and procedures or patient safety-related practices currently provided by most organizations. However, a comprehensive program approach, guided by a Patient Safety Program plan, will be required in order to ensure that patient safety is an integrated and coordinated process. Leadership commitment to this approach will need to be clearly demonstrated.