Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2009

We convened at Allen & Hoshall at 3:00 p.m.

Majid Hatamzadeh, President called our January 2009 meeting to order and he welcomed everyone to the New Year. Majid went over last year’s programs briefly and stated that we are continuing to grow. We have several new programs being offered this year and they should be of interest to all of the members.

The Mid –South Chapter has also been working on a Web site for the organization and we are hoping to go live before the next meeting. Many thanks go to Majid and to our Web-Master, Mirza Ali for this awesome web site.

Dr. Price from Christian Brothers was in attendance and he shared with us that he has been working on a program offering a “fundamental” review course, which will start in February. He also asked that we remind our members that the Mid-South Annual Engineering & Sciences Conference will be held May 5th in Memphis, TN, at Christian Brothers University. The Topic is “Safety: A Must – Not an Option”. Information can be obtained from the Web site www.maesc.org.
Majid has application forms for members for the 2009 year. He has asked that members review their contact information on the spreadsheet and make corrections as needed.

It was also discussed that the chapter may try to organize a one-day seminar in the fall for training and CEU purposes. More information will be presented to the members at the May and June meetings.

Our speaker for the meeting was Diane Hughes, owner and CEO of Hughes Consulting Group, LLC. Ms. Hughes specializes in regulatory requirements for healthcare. She presented an informational process for what is expected by contractors when working in healthcare. The focus was Infection Control Risk Assessment during construction. A matrix was given to the members explaining a step-by-step process for ensuring that all requirements are met during the construction process. Over 98, 000 patients are killed a year and this is largely attributed to improper Infection Control Procedures. Diane went over each step in the process, detailing the problem areas and why healthcare has become so particular about these procedures. Interim Life Safety Measures were also discussed as far as the daily monitoring that is required in the healthcare industry. As a contractor we are required to comply with the standards that are set forth in healthcare.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,
Diane Hughes
Secretary, Mid-South SFPE