Certified Healthcare Safety Long Term Care (CHS-LTC) Examination Blueprint/Outline Exam Domains 100-130 1. Safety Management Principles 31-40 (31%) 2. Hazard Control Concepts 46-60 (46%) 3. Compliance & Voluntary Standards 23-30 (23%) Domain 1 Safety Management (31-40 /31%) 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: a. Design, implement, and maintain comprehensive management systems by defining requirements, developing policies, and procedures to protect patients, staff, visitors, property, and environment. b. Implement policies, procedures, and directives in systematic manner to protect residents, patients, staff, visitors, property, and the care environment. c. 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.
d. Apply sound management and leadership practices to efficiently use resources to improve safety. e. Use methods to ensure stake-holders understand their roles in formulation and implementation of safety. f. Present information effectively to management and contractors, and public about compliance requirements. g. Take the responsibility to promote safety by providing technical counsel and advice on issues related to accreditation and consensus standards to protect people, property, and environment. Exam Domain 1 Safety Management (31-40 /31%) 1. Proactive safety 2. Safety priority 3. Safety coordinator 4. Worker stress 5. Organizational culture 6. Non-punitive safety culture 7. Working relationships 8. Safety improvement 9. Emergency operations planning 10. Team performance 11. Challenges to safety coordinators 12. Accident events 13. Change analysis 14. Continuous improvement process 15. Rapid-change method 16. Accident prevention 17. Safety policy statement 18. Promoting resident safety 19. Risk management 20. Resident safety 21. Reporting safety success 22. Safety functions effectiveness 23. Human behaviors 24. Accident analysis 25. Personal motivation 26. Safety function issues 27. Emergency preparedness planning 28. Workers compensation 29. Communication effectiveness 30. Healthcare facility safety success 31. Result of an accident event 32. Conducting safety analysis 33. Disaster related communication restoration 34. Safety foundational element 35. Safety priorities 36. Employee safety 37. Second order change 38. Resident safety concerns
39. Enforcing employee safety rules 40. True safety cultures Domain 2 Hazard Control Concepts (46-60 /46%) 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 Nursing facility support department safety o Fire safety and emergency management o CMS standards for nursing homes o NFPA 101, life safety o NFPA 99, healthcare facilities o Fire safety management and other relevant NFPA publications o CDC infection control guidelines
Domain 2 Hazard Control (46-60 /46%) 1. Accident causation factors 2. Accident generation 3. Accident trend analysis 4. Analyzing injuries and illnesses 5. Bloodborne pathogens 6. Chemical exposures 7. Common area disinfecting 8. Compressed gas safety 9. Cost benefit analysis 10. Delegation of safety-related responsibilities 11. Disinfecting targeted pathogens 12. Documenting causal factors 13. During healthcare facility safety inspections 14. Electrical safety 15. Employee orientation 16. Environmental service personnel hazards 17. Environmental services function 18. Ergonomics 19. Evaluating fire and explosive hazards 20. Evaluating the exposure to a chemical substance 21. Excessive noise levels? 22. Facility renovation safety 23. Fire-extinguishing systems 24. Food contamination 25. Hand sanitation 26. Hazard control management 27. Hazard reduction efforts 28. Healthcare facility hazards 29. Healthcare facility hazards 30. Healthcare hazard categories 31. Healthcare workers experience allergic reactions 32. Human error 33. Implementing hazard controls 34. Improve job and safety performance 35. Improving worker performance 36. Indoor contaminants 37. Infection transmission 38. Kitchen fire hazards 39. Kitchen hazards 40. Life safety 41. Maintenance function hazards 42. Nursing facility occupational hazards 43. Nursing safety 44. Occupancy types 45. Opportunistic infection risks 46. Periodic safety inspections 47. Personal protective equipment 48. Portable fire extinguishers 49. Preventing food contamination 50. Preventing slip, trip, and fall incidents 51. Prioritizing safety interventions 52. Safe resident lifting 53. Safety self-inspections 54. Slips and falls
55. Sprinkler alarm system 56. Storing hazardous materials 57. System safety hazards 58. Unsafe behaviors 59. Use of safety checklists 60. Ventilation hazards Domain 3 Compliance & Voluntary Standards (30 /23%) 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 Testing Materials (ASTM) 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 (23-30 /23%) 1. Air quality and ventilation 2. Bloodborne Pathogens 3. Confined spaces and lockout hazards 4. Electrical safety 5. Emergency management 6. EPA compliance 7. Evacuation and egress 8. Federal regulations and standards 9. Fire alarm systems 10. Fire extinguishing systems 11. Fire sprinkler and alarm systems 12. Hazardous material controls 13. Hazardous material exposures 14. Hazardous material regulations 15. Healthcare worker injuries 16. Infection control 17. Injury reporting and recording keeping 18. Medical device safety 19. Occupational safety hazards 20. OSHA inspection priorities 21. OSHA inspections and citations 22. Pesticide safety 23. Resident care standards 24. Respirator safety 25. Safety signs 26. Security and workplace violence 27. Slip, trip, and fall hazards 28. Tool and equipment safety 29. Waste disposal 30. Weather related risks