Three ambulances are headed for the hospital with victims of a multivehicle accident. A fourth ambulance is also en route carrying a 52-year-old man with chest pain. Calls come in from the EMS team, which begins streaming real-time vital signs and diagnostic information to the ED. Realizing multiple critically injured…

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There are good reasons to think about how patients experience your OR and your facility. It isn’t about private rooms and better food. The quality of their experience is fundamental to keeping patients safe. A new analysis from HealthGrades finds hospitals with the highest ratings for nurse and physician communications…

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Is your spark flickering? Maybe it’s dimmed in the face of the endless reports, e-mails, and urgent meetings you face every week. The to-do list seems endless. Next week’s priorities are overtaking this week’s, and they all seem to be in the wrong order. Connie Merritt, BSN, RN, PHN, is…

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First of 3 articles on applying Lean management to turnover time. Sinai Hospital of Baltimore faced a challenge. The block schedule was maxed out, even though new ORs had been added. There was a need to eke out every available minute. Despite efforts to improve turnover time, it had plateaued…

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Second of 3 articles on applying Lean management to turnover time.   Efforts to weed waste from turnover time quickly took root in one 10-OR department. Within about a month after OR staff and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) embraced the new process, turnover time decreased from about 26 minutes…

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Third of 3 articles on applying Lean management to turnover time.   Creating a “visual workplace” is a principle in Lean management. Visual cues have been one solution for improving turnover time at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. In a visual workplace, the goal is to make waste, problems,…

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A patient arrives for surgery. As soon as she checks in, she receives a wristband with a small locator tag that monitors her progress as she moves through the surgical process. Behind the scenes, the tag is signaling the surgical department’s real-time locating system (RTLS), which sends notices to OR…

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Are you considering wireless technology for tracking patients, staff, equipment, or supplies? Expert tips are offered by Rick Hampton, wireless communications manager for Partners Healthcare. The Boston-based network includes Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General, and affiliated facilities. Many hospitals are weighing decisions about these technologies, which include RTLS (real-time…

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Lean management in a teaching hospital’s otolaryngology OR improved efficiency, morale, and finances in a study from the University of Michigan (U-M), Ann Arbor. After 18 months: • turnover time (from exit of one patient to arrival of the next) fell by nearly one-third to 29 minutes • turnaround time…

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Staff in the cardiovascular OR area of the new Sheikh Zayed clinical tower at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore will be able to locate certain equipment via computer and use a Skype-like camera system to share images of instruments and supplies with the sterile core and sterile processing unit.…

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With patient safety as its primary goal, the University of Michigan Health System has created a new process using bar-coded sponges and electronic radiology orders to ensure no items are unintentionally left in a patient during surgery. Electronic orders provide for a standardized process that not only is safer but…

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A systemwide focus on supply chain management is helping Sutter Health, a large, Sacramento, California-based health system, to improve its financial performance by adopting best practices and taking a contemporary approach to strategic sourcing, value analysis, and logistical support. The target: Trim $200 million from expenses by 2012, and they’re…

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For the first time, cardiac catheterization laboratory personnel have a document defining best practices, including time-outs, infection prevention, and preprocedure checklists. The statement, from The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), issued in March 2012, is the first to represent consensus on the operation of cath labs, the lead…

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Hospitals now have the flexibility under federal law to include practitioners other than physicians on their medical staffs. That’s one provision of Medicare’s revised Conditions of Participation (COP) for hospitals and critical access hospitals, which take effect July 16, 2012. The revision is the first major overhaul of the COPs…

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With the early issuance of quality reporting codes for Medicare, both ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have a chance to develop expertise in their use and to resolve any technical problems before the mandatory start date of October 1, 2012. And that…

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