Turnover? Focus on everything else
If your OR wants to improve on-time first-case starts and turnover time—focus on everything else. That's the advice of Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, recently recognized as a "leading performer" for OR first-case on-time starts by VHA, Inc. Its strong performance is the outgrowth of a 4-year focus…
HCAHPS: How the OR's scores affect your whole organization
Fiscal year 2013 will be a milestone for hospital reimbursement. That's the year Medicare's proposed new hospital value-based purchasing program starts. Under value-based purchasing, a portion of hospitals' DRG reimbursement will be based on their performance on quality metrics, including patient perceptions of the quality of care (PPQC). (See March…
Handoffs: What ORs can learn from Formula One race crews
Hospitals are taking lessons from the high performance of Formula 1 racing pitstop crews and applying them to handoffs between the OR and the ICU. "The hand- off is like a pit stop: surgery is the first section of the race, the second part is intensive care, and the handoff…
CMS updates anesthesia guidelines
An occasional column on accreditation expectations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on January 14, 2011, issued a Survey and Certification Memorandum revising the interpretive guidelines for anesthesia services. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has been announcing the success of its dialog with CMS and has identified…
A few scope details still need attention
Freestanding centers are complying with most major recommendations for reprocessing gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes. But a few areas still need attention, a new report indicates. The report, by the AAAHC Institute, a subsidiary of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, compiles quality and efficiency data on colonoscopy from 69 ambulatory…
Communication reduces cancellations
Day-of-surgery cancellations decreased dramatically from 8% in 2008 to fewer than 3% in 2010 after a performance improvement (PI) project on preoperative communication at the Stony Brook University Medical Center Ambulatory Surgery Center, Stony Brook, New York. "The number of cases performed has increased, along with revenue. Patient safety and…
SCIP measures to weigh in Medicare pay starting in 2013
The dawn of hospital pay for quality has arrived. Hospitals have been reporting Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures and other quality measures to Medicare for public display. Now starting in fiscal year 2013, how well they perform on 7 of the SCIP measures and 18 other measures will determine…
Surgeons', anesthesiologists' perceptions of turnover times
Perceptions of turnover times by surgeons and anesthesiologists may be influenced more by a mental model of how team activity influences turnover times than by actual turnover times per se, a new study finds. Researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate, Syracuse, and the University of Iowa,…
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- 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