Healthcare Facilities Management Society of New Jersey, Inc.

Serving Healthcare Since 1949

 

 

*** General Membership Meeting***

 

Minutes to the Meeting of

February 15, 2007

 

 President John DiGirolomo, CHFM, SASHE called the meeting to order on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at the Galloping Hill Inn, Union, New Jersey, commencing at 6:05 p.m. Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Depadova lead everyone in the pledge of allegiance. Self-introductions were made by all in attendance.

 

 

SPONSOR

 

            The sponsors for this evening’s meeting were Ingersoll Rand Security Systems and Carpet Etc.

 

 

 

EDUCATIONAL SESSION TOPIC

 

  The educational session was presented by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Kevin Cruz the topic of discussion was Terrorism. Special Agent Cruz has over 19 years experience with the FBI and is the head of the New Jersey Joint Terrorism Task Force. He gave a detailed presentation to the group on both the history of the FBI and it's stance on both domestic and international terrorism as well as a report on what steps can be taken by Health Care Facility personnel to continue the vigilance to help stop terrorist acts.

 

President John DiGirolomo thanked Special Agent Kevin Cruz and representatives of Ingersoll Rand and Carpet Etc.

 

 

 

 

 

           

DINNER BREAK .

 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 

John DiGirolomo announced that he, William Anderson and Frank Del Gaudio attended the ASHE committee meetings in Albuquerque, NM. John shared one of the items with the group that was discussed at the meeting;

·               One issue that is currently a national issue but soon to be a chapter issue is concerning HR 378, a bill that would prevent healthcare providers from lifting any patient by manual means, to help reduce back injuries. ASHE is concerned that if this bill becomes law, healthcare organizations would be overwhelmed with requirements to install fixed and portable lifts in every room of the facility. ASHE is proposing an adjustment that would require lifts in a percentage of rooms to control costs.

John also mentioned that he is a member of the Safety, Security, Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery Committee and has submitted the checklists prepared by the NJHA and GNYHA regarding facility preparedness as a potential for national distribution. Both Hospital Associations have given permission to ASHE for the use of these documents,

John solicited the group for any additional advocacy items.

   

PRESIDENT-ELECT’S REPORT

 

Ben DiFranco reminded the group that March’s educational speaker would be Dan Chisolm speaking on emergency power in healthcare organizations; Dan has over 30 years of experience in this field including writing the code for emergency generator testing for the NFPA and working with the Department of Defense for generator testing at military bases. Ben asked the group to think about bringing members of their facilities who focus on this topic as guest for this evening.

Ben also announced that sponsorship is available for future meetings in 2007.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT

 

Bill Anderson, CHFM, FASHE presented the following synapses of the 2007 budget:

 

            Beginning Balance:     $67,162.48

            Disbursements:           $6,259.10

            Deposits:                     $7,525.00

            Ending Balance:          $68,428.38

 

The organization is solvent.

 

Bill also reminded the group that to date he has only received 57% of the dues owed for 2007.

 

SECRETARY'S REPORT

 

Edward Fay announced that the chapter’s documentation was prepared and ready for submittal to ASHE for our first Platinum Level chapter status.

 

The group was also reminded to contact Ed through the chapters website should they have any items they wish to have the membership made aware of.

 

 

ADVOCACY

 

Roger Roop was unavailable for February’s meeting, so John DiGirolomo spoke on the latest advocacy issue which concerns the proposed air quality pre-check prior to generator testing by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. John explained that since the potential exits for long periods unacceptable weather conditions, New Jersey hospitals could find themselves unable to meet the requirements of other AHJ's such as NJDOHSS and the Joint Commission pertaining to generator testing.

 

 

NEWSLETTER

 

John Schliewenz announced that the March HFMSNJ quarterly news letter is nearly complete and asked that if anyone has any information they wish to see included in this or future issues please contact him, a request came from the group to add a section in the news letter as a vendor "spot-light".

 

MEMBERSHIP

 

Peter Appelmann, CHFM distributed out 3 plaques to members inducted in January and brought two members forward for consideration of membership, both were escorted out by Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Depadova to allow for vote.

 

Both new members were unanimously inducted

 

WEBSITE

 

Oscar Gonzalez has asked all members to please contact him via email with any professional contacts so that he may solicit ads for the 2007 ad journal.

 

 

 

 

EAB

 

No report

 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

 

 

No report

AUDIT & NOMINATING COMMITTEE

 

 

No report

SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

Frank Keller announced that the next Bridges run would tomorrow night, Friday February 16th to NYC and asked that anyone interested in participating should contact him for directions and that assistance was also needed for preparing sandwiches. Frank also requested ideas for several "small - scale" projects for which the membership can participate.

 

DOH UPDATES

 

Edward Fay announced to the group that the New Jersey Department of Health and Social Services has made the first changes in over a decade to their sanitary requirements for retail food establishments in healthcare facilities and that copy of these changes would be added to the website.

 

NFPA UPDATES

 

No Report

 

JOINT COMMISSION UPDATES

 

 

John DiGirolomo announced that the Joint Commission will be changing the Emergency Management Standard to a Chapter of its own with 39 Elements of Performance.

 

           

OLD BUSINESS

 

No “Old Business” was discussed.

 

 

 

            

NEW BUSINESS

 

No other "New Business" was discussed

 

 

ASHE

 

President John DiGirolomo, CHFM, SASHE informed the group to expect an ASHE Flash survey about your emergency power systems.

 

John also urged eligible members of the group to consider taking the CHFM test

 

Ben DiFranco reminded the members that there are applications to ASHE at every meeting and urged all members to enroll in ASHE.

 

  

GOOD OF THE ORDER

 

John DiGirolomo informed the group that ASHE now has an 18 page hazardous vulnerability analysis available on the web concerning sentinel event 37 on emergency power system.                           

 

 

           

MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:22 P.M.