Using best practices to sterilize surgical instruments can help lower infection rates and, in some cases, prevent death. Over the past few years, staff at Banner Boswell Medical Center in Sun City, Arizona, have worked to reduce immediate use steam sterilization (IUSS) rates. Thanks to improved communication and workflow between…

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When it comes to buying medical-surgical supplies, quality, safety, and physician comfort are foremost—but that doesn’t mean price is no object. Even though ambulatory surgery center (ASC) staff often lack materials management expertise, they can achieve cost savings in several ways, especially if they brush up on terms used in…

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To paraphrase the popular Alan Jackson song “Gone Country,” more than 1,400 perioperative nurse leaders from across the US and from other countries “went country” by attending the 28th annual OR Manager Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, this past October. They were drawn to both the in-depth educational opportunity and the…

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Three new studies on reducing surgical site infections (SSIs) were reported at the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) conference in July. Researchers at three different institutions identified several process changes that, once implemented, brought down SSI rates. Each study used different methodology, but all…

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Earlier this year, we published two articles about the emerging perioperative surgical home (PSH) model of care, and the topic was included in a panel session on innovative programs at this year’s OR Manager Conference. The basic concept of the PSH is to provide integrated patient-centered care from the time…

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Business managers make up a relatively small percentage of perioperative services staff, but they play an increasingly important role in ensuring quality of patient care. That’s probably one reason for the growing popularity of the annual OR Business Management Conference, which will be held February 21-24, 2016, in Phoenix. The…

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Quality indicators for anesthesia For the past several years, physicians have participated in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) established by Medicare as a way to assess the quality of patient care and tie that to reimbursement. Beginning in 2015, a negative payment adjustment hit individuals and group practices whose…

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The anesthesia quality improvement program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville can claim a variety of successes, notably less postoperative hypo- and hyper-glycemia and fewer wound infections. When anesthesia providers noticed they weren’t monitoring blood glucose in patients with diabetes as frequently as their own goals specified, they put…

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