Certified Healthcare Safety Environmental Services (CHS-EVS) Examination Blueprint/Outline Exam Domains 100-130 1. Safety Management 38-50 (38%) 2. Hazard Control 38-50 (38%) 3. Compliance & Voluntary Standards 24-30 (24%) Domain 1 Safety Management (38%) This domain requires exam candidates to demonstrate competency by using recall, recognition, comprehension, and application of knowledge to correctly answer items related to healthcare safety, leadership, and management to promote safety as an operational priority in healthcare organizations. IBFCSM ensures distribution of all exam types of items throughout the examination. Knowledge and job practice skills include the following: a. Design, implement, and maintain comprehensive management systems by defining requirements, developing policies, and procedures to protect patients, staff, visitors, property, and environment. Implement policies, procedures, and directives in systematic manner to protect residents, patients, staff, visitors, property, and the care environment. b. Determine the effectiveness of safety related functions and relevant systems by measuring and evaluating performance indicators to ensure continuous improvement to protect patients, staff, visitors, and contractors. c. Apply sound management and leadership practices to efficiently use resources to improve safety. d. Use appropriate methods to ensure stake-holders understand their roles in formulation and implementation of safety.
e. Present technical information effectively to management, contractors, vendors, and the public about compliance requirements. f. Take responsibility to promote safety by providing technical counsel and advice on issues related to accreditation and consensus standards to protect people, property, and environment. g. Safety management topics: o Accident, injury, and illness prevention and accident costing o Inspections, audits, surveys, investigations, and root cause analysis o Safety policies, safety plans, and reporting procedures o Understanding safety cultures o Management and leadership concepts/principles o Human relations and understanding organizational cultures o Managerial techniques (management by exception, migrating decision making, etc.) Exam Domain 1 Safety Management (38%) 1. Accident management 2. Accident prevention 3. Accident reporting 4. Classifying accident factors 5. Cleaning profession 6. Cleaning science 7. Disaster planning 8. Education, orientation, and training 9. Emergency preparedness 10. EVS management 11. EVS roles accident prevention 12. Functions of management 13. Green cleaning solutions 14. Hazard control management 15. Healthcare worker risks 16. Human behaviors 17. Human relations 18. Identifying risks 19. Improving safety 20. Incident collection systems 21. Incident investigations 22. Injury and accident reporting 23. Inspections and audits 24. Job safety analysis 25. Knowledge and understanding 26. Management decisions 27. Motivating people 28. Organizational cultures 29. Orientation 30. Preparing for cleaning tasks 31. Resource management 32. Safety behaviors 33. Safety checklists 34. Safety colors
35. Safety cultures 36. Safety design 37. Safety evaluations 38. Safety information sources 39. Safety leadership 40. Safety leadership 41. Safety management issues 42. Safety methodologies 43. Safety related responsibilities 44. Safety responsibilities 45. Supervising safety 46. System safety 47. Teamwork 48. Training and education 49. Worker safety responsibilities 50. Worker s compensation Domain 2 Hazard Control Concepts (38%) This domain requires exam candidates to demonstrate competency by using recall and recognition, comprehension, and application of knowledge to correctly answer items related to healthcare hazards. Exam items can focus on the identification, analysis, and control of hazards to prevent accidents, reduce risks, and maintain a safe environment for staff, residents, patients, and visitors. are distributed throughout the examination. Knowledge and job practice skills include the following: a. Evaluate facilities, products, systems, equipment, workstations, and processes by applying appropriate qualitative techniques to identify the hazards and assess their risks. b. Recommend controls through design and engineering to eliminate hazards and reduce the risks posed by safety hazards. c. Evaluate controls by analyzing effectiveness, reliability, and costs to achieve the best solutions. d. Implement strategies by using the results of hazard identification and risk analyses to eliminate and/or reduce harmful exposure to people, property, and the environment. e. Obtain compliance certifications, listings, approvals or authorizations by identifying applicable regulations, and standards to ensure facility safety. f. Communicate hazards, risks, and controls to employees, management, and the public. g. Hazard control topics: o Physical hazards (electrical, machine, equipment, tools, noise, radiation, etc.) o Chemical hazards (disinfectants, pesticides, solvents, dangerous drugs, gases, etc.) o Ergonomic/environmental hazards (repetitive tasks, falls, musculoskeletal disorders, etc.) o Biohazards (legionella, waste handling, sharps exposures, construction risks, etc.) o Psycho-social hazards (workplace violence, security, stress, shift work, etc.) o Fire safety and emergency management
o NFPA 101, life safety o NFPA 99, healthcare facilities o Fire safety management and other relevant NFPA publications o CDC infection control guidelines o Hospital acquired infections o Opportunistic infections (aspergillum and pseudomonas) Exam Domain 2 Hazard Control (38%) 1. Accident causal factors 2. Accident response 3. Analyzing processes 4. Biohazards 5. Building contaminants 6. Change analysis 7. Chemical exposures 8. Chemical safety 9. Chemical storage and disposal 10. Cleaning agents 11. Disinfectant efficacy 12. Disinfectant selection 13. Disinfecting and sterilizing 14. Disinfecting effectiveness 15. Disinfecting, sterilizing, and sanitizing 16. Electrical hazards 17. Emergency drills and exercises 18. Emergency response 19. Ergonomic hazards 20. Evaluating floor hazards 21. Evaluating hazardous chemicals 22. Facility and building safety 23. Facility evacuations 24. Fire response 25. Fire risk evaluation 26. Fire safety audits 27. Fire safety evaluations 28. Hazard analysis 29. Hazard categories 30. Hazard controls 31. Hazardous human exposures 32. Hazardous wastes 33. Healthcare facility security 34. Healthcare hazards 35. Healthcare work risks 36. Human hazard exposures 37. Indoor air contaminants 38. Indoor health hazards 39. Infection transmission 40. Maintaining healthy buildings 41. Maintenance and facility safety 42. Preventing slips, trips, and falls 43. Safe task accomplishments 44. Selecting cleaning methods 45. Selecting hazard controls 46. Spill response procedures 47. Understanding accidents
48. Ventilation 49. Worker allergic reactions 50. Worker safety hazards Domain 3 Compliance & Voluntary Standards (24%) This domain requires candidates to demonstrate competency by using recall and recognition, comprehension, and application of knowledge to correctly answer items related to ethical professional healthcare safety practice including adherence to compliance, accreditation, and voluntary consensus standards. Develop effective education and training by establishing objectives to impart knowledge and facilitate understanding of compliance, accreditation, and voluntary standards. Exam items appear throughout the exam. Job knowledge and practice skills include the following: a. Evaluate compliance through performance assessments and various forms of feedback in to assure that training is effective. b. Maintain a recordkeeping and data capture system to acquire, analyze, and distribute accurate data and meet compliance requirements. c. Hold paramount protection of people, property, and environment by working with management and government agencies. d. Adhere to professional conduct by limiting practice to areas of competence and avoiding conflicts. e. Improve competency through continuing education and maintaining proficient use of technologies. f. Refer to appropriate standards to guide compliance and accreditation actions: o CMS standards o Federal Agencies (CDC, DHS, DHHS, DHS, DOT, EPA, FDA, FEMA, NRC, & OSHA) o Voluntary Organizations (ANSI, ASTM, ASHRAE, ASME, CGA, FGI, NFPA, NIOSH, UL) g. Compliance and voluntary standards: o Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) o OSH Act and General Duty Clause (Dangerous Drugs, TB, Lasers, Workplace Violence) o Healthcare Related Standards o Hazard Communication (29 CFR 1910.1200) o Respiratory Standard (29 CFR 1910.134) o Controlling Hazardous Energy (29 CFR 1910.147) o Permit Confined Spaces (29 CFR 1910.146) o Air Contaminants (29 CFR 1910, Subpart Z) o Electrical Standards (29 CFR 1910.303) o Bloodborne Pathogens (29 CFR 1910.1030) o Nursing Home and Healthcare E-Tools (OSHA Website) o Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) and Universal Waste Act (UWA) o Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) o Food and Drug Administration (21 CFR) o Department of Health and Human Services (42 CFR) NIOSH, AHRQ, CMS, CDC, etc. o National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) o American National Standards Institute (ANSI) o American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, & Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) o Underwriters Laboratory (UL)
o Factory Mutual (FM) o American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Domain 3 Compliance & Voluntary Standards (24%) 1. Bloodborne pathogens 2. Disinfectant regulation 3. Disinfecting levels 4. Emergency showers and eyewashes 5. Environmental laws 6. EPA standards 7. Federal safety regulations 8. Federal standards and regulations 9. Fire extinguishers 10. Hazardous material regulations 11. Human chemical exposure levels 12. Infection zones 13. Life safety 14. Lost-time injury categories 15. OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard 16. OSHA healthcare facility emphasis topics 17. OSHA inspections 18. OSHA safety enforcement 19. PPE training 20. Protective clothing and equipment 21. Radiation safety 22. Regulating antimicrobial products 23. Safety regulations 24. Safety signs 25. Safety warning and cautions 26. Training requirements 27. Voluntary PPE standards 28. Walking and working surfaces 29. Waste disposal standards 30. Weather events