Take care with your ancillary anesthesia charges
A column on managing the OR revenue cycle How to charge for surgical services is a frequent source of questions from OR directors and business managers. In this column, Keith Siddel, MBA, answers frequent questions about charging. He is an officer with Health Revenue Assurance Associates (HRRA), Plantation, Florida.…
Malignant hyperthermia: A crisis response plan
Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a genetic skeletal muscle disorder that is incited by anesthesia drugs including succinlycholine and inhaled anesthetic agents (Gurunluoglu et al, 2009; Hopkins, 2011; Kim et al, 2011). The disorder is particularly dangerous because it rapidly develops into a hypermetabolic state resulting in hyperpyrexia, tachycardia, and intense…
Are you on target for meeting SSI, SCIP metrics?
OR leaders will want to check that their surgical site infection (SSI) rates are in line with 5-year goals in the updated National Action Plan for reducing health care-associated infection (HAI) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). By and large, hospitals are on target to meet SSI…
How to add more teeth to your loaner set policy
It’s one thing to have a policy on managing loaner instrument sets. But how do you put teeth in your policy so these sets can be reprocessed in time to provide safe care and comply with professional guidelines and regulatory requirements? Readers have asked how to get administrative support for…
Practice now applying the new ASC quality codes
While the deadline for beginning to report quality measures on Medicare claim forms is not until October 1, 2012, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) can start practicing. On April 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a set of reporting codes for the first 5 measures. The…
HHS: A draft for closer scrutiny of HAIs in ASCs
Infection control is in the spotlight again, as ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) examine a draft Health and Human Services (HHS) document calling for closer scrutiny of precautions in outpatient settings. The agency released a draft of Phase 2 of its National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) on April…
Study could lead to more scrutiny of anesthesia staffing for GI cases
Who should be giving sedation to low-risk patients having colonoscopies and upper GI endoscopies? This question may get a new look with a large new study in the March 21, 2012, JAMA. Researchers found use of anesthesia services for these cases has more than doubled over 7 years, jumping from…
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Career Center
- Director of Nursing, Behavioral Health - Signet Health Corporation - Coos Bay, OR
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- Orthopedic Surgery PA - Lahey Hospital & Medical Center - Exeter, NH