ASHE Advocacy Team reports successes at NFPA
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Meeting held on June 8 and 9 proved to be a successful meeting for the American Society for Health Care Engineering Advocacy Team. The team addressed several challenges associated with NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, that drew its attention. The team was able to orchestrate discussions between key groups that included both opponents and proponents on several aspects and help come to consensus. A transcript of the full meeting is available on NFPA’s website.
Committee reviewing proposals for ASHRAE 514
The Committee for ASHRAE Standard 514, Risk Management for Building Water Systems: Physical, Chemical and Microbial Hazards, will be meeting Aug. 23 to 25 to review 357 public comments made to the proposed standard. Standard 514 builds on the foundations set by ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2018, Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems, and NSF 444, Prevention of Injury and Disease Associated with Building Water Systems. ASHRAE Standard 514 goes a step further “to address building water quality, the importance of managing safe, quality building water systems and prevention strategies,” says 2018-2019 ASHRAE President Sheila J. Hayter, PE. Of the submitted comments, 126 pertain to the standard’s health care section.
ASPR releases tools for hospital emergency supply
Disaster Available Supplies in Hospitals (DASH) from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is an interactive tool that can help hospital emergency planners and supply chain staff estimate supplies that may need to be immediately available during various mass casualty incidents and infectious disease emergencies based on hospital characteristics. DASH recommends average par levels for specific supplies that acute care hospitals may need to have on hand to respond to a disaster in their community until resupplied. Recommendations are based on user inputs about the size of the hospital, risks in the community, regional role, designation of the hospital and other factors. DASH is comprised of several modules which, taken together, can provide hospitals with a holistic view of the supplies needed to address various types of incidents.
FBI warns of health care cybersecurity threat
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of the Treasury released a joint cybersecurity advisory to provide information on Maui ransomware, which has been used by North Korean state-sponsored cyber-actors since at least May 2021 to target health care and public health sector organizations. The advisory provides information — including tactics, techniques, procedures and indicators of compromise — on Maui ransomware obtained from FBI incident response activities and industry analysis of a Maui sample.
