A visual management board is a communication tool that provides at-a-glance information about current process performance to help staff coordinate and guide their daily work and monitor ongoing improvement projects. Perioperative staff at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, have a 20-minute weekly huddle at their Lean-based visual management board,…
Congratulations. You have worked hard to master your skills in the sterile processing department (SPD). You have prepared, been interviewed, and finally been promoted to a leadership position. Now, what? Yesterday you were working as a peer in your department, and now you are the leader. Are you prepared for…
Protecting patient safety in the OR is everyone’s business. No single group should shoulder the full responsibility for reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In addition to infection preventionists, epidemiologists, and environmental services personnel, it is the duty of everyone involved in patient care to provide an optimal clean and aseptic surgical…
Nurse leaders know that a successful workplace fosters and celebrates teamwork. In the OR, teamwork among surgeons, surgical technologists, circulating nurses, anesthesiologists, and first assistants, to name a few, is critical to ensure patient safety and positive outcomes. And teamwork does not have to be reserved for inside the surgical…
Editor's Note In this study, led by the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, researchers developed and validated better surgical specialty-specific multimorbidity definitions based on distinct characteristics of older inpatients undergoing general, orthopedic, or vascular surgery. The researchers used 2016 to 2017 Medicare administrative claims data on patients…
Editor's Note A recent survey by online platform The Muse finds that Generation Z workers are the most likely to leave a job because of a toxic workplace, even though they have spent the least amount of time in the workplace, the March 14 Benefit News reports. The survey showed…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission and Kaiser Permanente on March 15 announced that they are now accepting applications for the 2023 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity. The award, now in its 3rd year, recognizes a healthcare organization for an intervention that led to…
Editor's Note This study led by researchers from the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City, finds that total hip arthroplasty (THA) performed with a cementless prosthesis for a femoral neck fracture led to a higher rate of a second fracture and revision surgery. The multicenter analysis included 709 THAs…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 8 announced that it has approved new and revised requirements for hospitals and critical access hospitals certified under the Patient Blood Management Certification program, effective July 1. The requirements have been updated to maintain alignment with the Association for the Advancement of Blood…
Editor's Note This study by researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that preoperative surgeon intuition is an independent predictor of postoperative complications, but it isn’t as strong as the predictive power of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP)…