With new and emerging water management standards, critical environments such as health care facilities must retool their systems and retrain their workers to provide better care quality and ensure patient safety throughout the built environment. When it comes to water, it is an all-hands-on-deck approach, as many teams and departments throughout these organizations either utilize water for procedures and tools or prepare these wet spaces for the immunocompromised patient population to temporarily reside.
One global leader in health care accreditation is paving the way with new and improved patient standards as it relates to the physical environment. The Joint Commission announced this year that it has added a new water management standard required for all TJC-accredited health care facilities, which went into effect Jan. 1. The Joint Commission is a not-for-profit organization intended to offer an unbiased assessment of patient care and safety while providing the health care facility with the accreditation needed to receive funding from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid programs (CMS). Its latest water management standard, EC 02.05.02, is comprised of four elements of performance and not only puts the spotlight on water quality but holds each facility’s feet to the fire to ensure that processes are followed for the safety of the patient. The emergence of these standards not only alerts us of the importance of water quality within a health care facility but also to the resources needed to maintain a safe and compliant environment.