Multi-Media Survey – A Compliance Consideration for Your Hospital
Posted on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 @ 08:56 AM
By Bob Shuman, National Corporate Director of Healthcare
Most hospitals today recognize the critical importance of complying with both the EPA and their State regulations directed at the lawful management, collection and disposal of hazardous waste within their facilities.
In a perfect world, hospitals would create a strategic plan, identify the appropriate human resources and fund an adequate budget to reach compliance; in fact, they would treat regulatory compliance as seriously as they do financial compliance. And why shouldn’t they…non-compliance, in any flavor, can be costly and involve both civil and criminal penalties.
But this is not a perfect world; many hospitals, in these challenging financial times, are struggling to prioritize and then fund their competing strategic initiatives. Budgets are already stretched, nerves are frayed and human resources are over-allocated.
What to do then about assessing environmental compliance?
One simple and straightforward solution is to engage a trusted industry expert and advisor (Triumvirate) to provide a multi-media survey of your environmental systems directly regulated by the EPA and your State authorities. This survey can be as narrow in scope as to review the programs established to manage RCRA related waste, or, be broadened to include compliance with the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the other 3 – 4 major regulations promulgated by the EPA. This survey can often be crafted in a fashion such that there are no self-reporting requirements in the event that deficiencies are identified that may require correction or remediation.
In the end, your facility will get an environmental “check-up from the neck-up” from which go-forward planning and decisions can be intelligently made to move further along the compliance continuum. Its one giant step in the right direction for your hospital and, potentially for the people and communities you serve.
Please feel free to e-mail me at rshuman@triumvirate.com if you have any questions.