It’s been said we live in a sharing economy: We share our homes through companies like Airbnb, and we share our cars through companies like Uber and Lyft. So it’s not surprising that organizations are now sharing equipment, including OR equipment, with positive results. For example, Kaiser Permanente Southern California…

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Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is arguably the greatest advancement in surgery in the last 20 years. But even healthcare leaders who support the use of ERAS to achieve better outcomes can find it daunting to implement the protocols throughout their hospital systems. Standardizing practices across areas that have historically…

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Editor's Note The spread of COVID-19 in the US could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in direct medical costs, according to this study partially funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Using AHRQ data and other sources, researchers developed computer models to simulate the financial…

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Planning for volume growth and adopting best business practices for the perioperative environment were overarching themes at the 2020 OR Business Management Conference (ORBMC) in late January. Leading healthcare industry clinicians and experts offered fresh insights into competing in the burgeoning outpatient surgery market and persuading stakeholders to switch to…

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Over the last 5 years, the perioperative surgical home (PSH) model has attracted increasing interest from OR directors, anesthesiologists, and surgeons. This team-based, patient-centered approach coordinates all phases of surgical care, from preoperative assessment through intraoperative care and postdischarge recovery. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, PSH initiatives have…

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More than half of respondents to a recent OR Manager reader survey put cost-saving initiatives at the top of their list of important topics, and cost reduction is an ongoing challenge for many OR managers. Leaders at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVH), based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, took a creative approach…

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Editor's Note A survey of 500 US healthcare industry leaders conducted by Optum finds that executives are ramping up their implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) efforts, with 62% saying they have adopted AI strategies in their organizations, the March 11 HealthIT Analytics reports. This is a nearly 88% increase from…

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Editor's Note This study of Medicare patients at 340 teaching hospitals and matched patient controls at 2,444 nonteaching hospitals found that as risk of mortality increased, the mortality benefit of treatment at teaching hospitals also increased, though with marginally higher costs. Included in the analysis were 86,751 pairs of general,…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers found little to no significant change in the characteristics of patients having total hip and knee replacement surgery after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced the mandatory bundled payment programs in selected metropolitan statistical areas. The analysis included a matched set of…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on February 20 issued a rule proposing changes to the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) program, which bundles payments to acute care hospitals for hip and knee replacement surgical procedures. CMS proposes extending the CJR model for an additional…

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