A Big 5 report keeps perioperative leaders at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City abreast of leading financial metrics for the 31-OR department (illustration, p 9). The report displays financial variances for the 5 surgical supply-focused expense areas: medical-surgical supplies instrumentation implants wound closure supplies drug supplies. "These…

Read More

Surgeons at St Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut, were frustrated because the scheduled start times for their cases during the day seemed to vary a lot. Using their new dashboard, OR leaders were able to see that they were below the benchmark for scheduling accuracy. "We were not doing a…

Read More

Responding to numerous questions, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has revised its interpretive guidelines for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to clarify that the history and physical (H&P) may be performed on the same day as the surgical procedure and may be performed in the ASC. The clarification…

Read More

Advances in technology have led to shorter patient stays, improved outcomes, and the feasibility of performing more procedures on an outpatient basis. That means ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) need to continually reevaluate their procedure mix to be sure they are not missing out on potential business. Though taking on new…

Read More

Bacterial contamination is common on the hands of anesthesia providers, with high rates of transmission to the surgical field, a new study finds. "As anesthesiologists, we like to think the surgical drapes protect the patient from tens of trillions of microorganisms that are in and on our bodies. Nope!" says…

Read More

What is your facility type? Number of scheduled ORs Community hospitals Academic hospitals 1-4 ORs 26% 10% 5-9 ORs 42% 19% 10+ ORs 32% 71% The standard staffing pattern for a surgical case is one scrub person and one circulating RN. But there are many situations for which ORs assign…

Read More

Medical-surgical supplies are essential to the delivery of health care. That is why even small hospitals usually have a staff member who is in charge of ordering, buying, stocking, and distributing the thousands of supplies and who knows how to manage vendors and negotiate contracts. Larger hospitals have high-level executives…

Read More

Technology is starting to take its place as a supplement to manual counts in the effort to prevent retained surgical items (RSIs). RSIs persist despite the emphasis many ORs have placed on tightening their manual counting methods. Recent reports from California are an example of the challenge ORs are up…

Read More