How are you doing on high-level disinfection?
Recognizing how seriously reprocessing flaws can affect patients, the Joint Commission elevated its high-level disinfection standards in 2009, placing them at the same level as the sterilization standards. Under the changes, high-level disinfection is scored as Category A, the same as sterilization, and not as Category C as it was…
When staff speak up on safety, do managers listen--and act?
Checklists, time-outs, and other patient safety tools are supposed to make care safer. But what happens when a safety tool alerts a team to a problem that otherwise would have been missed and could harm a patient? Will team members speak up? The vast majority—85%—of nurses in a new study…
Going green in the OR brings financial, environmental gains
The OR generates more than 40% of a hospital's revenue and between 20% and 30% of its total waste volume, according to Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in health care. Given those numbers, it's no wonder that being environmentally friendly or "green" doesn't just benefit society—it…
A plan for ASC value-based purchasing
The government laid out a roadmap for moving toward value-based purchasing (VBP) for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in an April 2011 report to Congress. The Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary was required to develop a plan under the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. The government sees VBP as…
Managing SSI surveillance in an ASC
Tracking surgical site infections (SSI) is not easy for ambulatory surgical centers (ASC). Most patients are gone soon after waking up, but infections may not occur for days, weeks, or, in the case of implants, up to a year or more. Yet tighter infection reporting rules (along with other quality…
Looking to front-line clinicians, staff for lasting improvements
A patient with a multidrug-resistant infection is coming to your OR. That patient will travel from her room—one of the most contaminated areas of the hospital—to surgery, which is perhaps the cleanest. How can her caregivers avoid cross-contamination that could transmit the infection to others? At 219-bed St Patrick Hospital…
Nurses speak up on new ORs design
OR managers have many opportunities to improve the lives of their patients. They meet with staff to review scheduling policies and infection prevention procedures. They may sit on committees to help select new supplies and equipment. The physical work environment, however, is usually a given. The operating room may have…
Does Medtronic action signal a shift?
Medtronic caused a stir in February 2011 when it canceled several contracts with the 2 largest group purchasing organizations (GPOs), Novation and Premier. The big device company ended 5 Novation contracts worth $2 billion covering spinal implants, neurosurgery power tools, bone graft materials, and cardiac rhythm management products plus a…
Free Daily News
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- CSA taps Milagro’s AI coding to accelerate revenue cycle across ASC network
- Study: Cannabis use complicates sedation, cancer care
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Career Center
- Director- Clinical Operations, Operating Room, Riley Children's Hospital - Indiana University Health - Indianapolis, IN
- CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEON STANFORD MEDICINE - Stanford University, School of Medicine - Corvallis, OR
- PEDIATRIC CARDIAC SURGEON - Stanford University, School of Medicine - Honolulu, HI
- Tampa Vascular Surgeon - Vein ans Vascular Institute - Tampa, FL