Q: Lincoln Endoscopy Center was re-accredited for the third time by AAAHC last month. What was an area of improvement that was brought to your attention from the second survey you have focused on leading up to your third survey?
Ms. Becky Johnson: One of the things the surveyor from our last AAAHC survey pointed out was disaster preparedness, which focuses on what a facility would do in case of a disaster like a fire or tornado. With so many things going on around the country, like the disaster in New Orleans, organizations are really making ASCs accountable for disaster preparedness and are asking, “Where are your charts going to be?” and “Where are you going to set up shop?” in case a disaster happens.
Q: What changes took place in order for the center to be better prepared for disasters?
BJ: We developed a safety committee that meets quarterly. Each time we meet, we talked about little things … like where we were going to get water if it wasn’t available or what we were going to do if we lost power. We’re in the process of figuring out what to do if we lost power because we run completely electronically.
There was one time when we lost water unexpectedly because there was work going on with the water main by our facility. With our scope processing, we need so many gallons of water to clean those scopes. All of a sudden, we had none. Now, we use more potable water and close some of the bathroom stalls so we aren’t using as much water. Instead of washing our hands, we have hand wipes.
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