Editor's Note Capacity issues persist within the anesthesia workforce, leaving perioperative leaders tasked with maintaining efficient operations and safe practices for patients through surgery. We spoke with leaders from SCA Health, Stormont Vail Health, and Heartland Anesthesia & Consulting to find out other challenges anesthesia providers are facing, and how…
Editor's Note Patients with depressive symptoms are nearly twice as likely to experience delirium after major surgery, according to a meta-analysis published September 4 in the journal Anaesthesia. The evaluation of the link between preoperative depression and postoperative delirium included data from 42 studies involving more than 4.6 million patients.…
Editor's Note A new study, the Stop-or-Not Trial, has found no significant difference in outcomes for patients undergoing noncardiac surgery who either continued or discontinued their renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitor therapy, MedPage Today August 31 reports. The randomized clinical trial, which included over 2,200 patients, reported the rate of death…
Editor's Note Research reveals nearly 10% of patients treated with prescription opioid painkillers develop opioid dependency or opioid use disorder (OUD), Healio reported on August 13. Additionally, nearly 30% of patients exhibit signs and symptoms indicating potential OUD. Originally published in the journal Addiction, the data are from a systematic…
Every year, OR Manager shines a light on staffing issues via the Salary/Career Survey. In this issue, two articles take a careful look at the career and profile of the perioperative leader in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Next month, two more articles will do the same with salary trends…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Amneal Pharmaceuticals' Abbreviated New Drug Application for single-dose vials of propofol injectable emulsion, Anesthesiology News August 23 reports. The newly approved formulations include 200 mg/20 mL, 500 mg/50 mL, and 1,000 mg/100 mL vials. Propofol is widely used for anesthesia and…
Editor's Note Propofol research published in the journal Neuron has broader implications for enabling more precise, safer doses of anesthesia, according to an August 14 report in Anesthesiology News. According to the article, anesthesiologists tend to use higher doses of anesthetics because they rely on indirect measures, such as heart…
Editor's Note At last year’s OR Manager Conference, healthcare leader Karen Reiter, RN, CNOR, RNFA, CASC, shared her expertise on integrating complex spine procedures into ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). As the former administrator at DISC Surgery Center at Newport Beach and vice president of operations and payer management at TriasMD,…
Editor's Note The rising frequency of wildfires has anesthesiologists concerned about potential for adverse surgical outcomes to exposed patients, according to an article in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). As of an August 6 report from ASA, nearly 100…
Editor's Note In healthcare, ensuring the safety of staff and patients is paramount, particularly in outpatient clinics where incidents of violence can occur unexpectedly. At the 2024 SGNA Annual Course, experts discussed the importance of preparedness in managing violent situations in such settings, Gastroenterology and Endoscopy News August 7 reports.…