Healthcare is striving to become an industry of high-reliability organizations. Part of being a high-reliability industry means staying vigilant and identifying problems proactively. That’s one function of patient safety organizations (PSOs), such as ECRI Institute PSO, and one of the reasons ECRI produces its annual Top 10 list of patient…

Read More

Most OR leaders today are concerned about the growing problem of diabetes in surgical care. More than 30 million people in the US now have diabetes mellitus, and many studies have demonstrated its adverse impact on surgical outcomes. The challenge is translating this research into practice. Managing diabetes is always…

Read More

For an ambulatory surgery center (ASC), maintaining a safe physical environment for patients generally falls to the administrator and governing board. For those who lack expertise in healthcare architecture, building codes, and risk management, it may pay to hire a consultant. Even so, ASC managers remain responsible for compliance. Fortunately,…

Read More

In this challenging healthcare environment, OR leaders have a fiscal responsibility to help hospitals meet financial goals that contribute to a healthy bottom line. There is no more expensive procedure you can have in the hospital than to spend time in the OR,” says Keith Siddel, PhDc, JD, MBA, CHC.…

Read More

The perioperative surgical home (PSH) has been gaining momentum, with early results linking it to lower costs, better quality, fewer emergency department (ED) visits and readmissions, and shorter stays in skilled nursing facilities or none at all. In February, the PSH Learning Collaborative, a partnership between the American Society of…

Read More

Intriguing new research cites medical errors as the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2013 said the top three causes of death were heart disease (611,105 deaths), cancer (584,881), and chronic respiratory disease (149,205).…

Read More

Best-selling author and professor Elizabeth M. Norman, PhD, RN, will give the keynote address on Thursday, September 22, during the annual OR Manager Conference in Las Vegas. Norman, who spoke at the conference in 2000, has interviewed numerous nurses working in war zones. Drawing on her many years of experience,…

Read More

Affordable, reliable care for adult and pediatric patients alike is the hallmark of the perioperative surgical home (PSH), as demonstrated by two organizations that are using PSH programs: a community health system and a children’s hospital. Leaders from both organizations shared their PSH journeys with OR Manager. Lower costs, shorter…

Read More