Is event-related dating going away?
Because of recent regulatory activity, some are asking whether event-related sterility dating is going away. The answer is no. The confusion is a result of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking Kimberly-Clark (KC) to submit a new 510k application to confirm that its sterilization wrap meets all current requirements.…
Stay ahead of reimbursement changes
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) are generally set up to serve the needs of their patient communities while maximizing revenue for their physician, investor, or hospital owners. Take away those incentives, and it is reasonable for an ASC manager to ask, "What are we doing here?" Yet with falling reimbursement rates…
AORN RPs generate lively discussion
Proposed revisions to AORN recommended practices (RPs) on surgical attire and prevention of unplanned retained items (formerly counts) generated lively discussion at the AORN Congress in March in Denver—as they are likely to do in ORs across the country. The proposals were open for public comment on the AORN website,…
Keynote: What would Florence do?
When did the health care crisis get to be a crisis? Was it last year with the capital crunch and reimbursement cutbacks? Was it the evolution of managed care and corporate medicine? Does it go back to when Medicare was established? What would Florence Nightingale say about the health care…
Total joints: Toward zero infections
The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City has one of the highest volumes of total joint replacements in the world. It also has one of the lowest surgical site infection (SSI) rates. The hospital, which performs about 8,000 joint replacements a year, was recently commended by the…
What is the OR’s role in SSI surveillance?
Under the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal 07.05.01 on preventing surgical site infections (SSIs), organizations are required to measure their SSI rates. They also need to provide process and outcome measures, such as SSI rates, to key stakeholders; for example, surgeons and senior administrators. Perioperative nurses play an important…
Will skin-prep practice change following new study results?
Strong evidence from a new 6-hospital study could lead many ORs to change their traditional practice for surgical skin preparation. In the first prospective, randomized study to compare the effect of 2 skin prep agents on the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) after clean-contaminated surgery, a chlorhexidine (CHG)-alcohol product…
Preventing pressure ulcers: New lessons from Minnesota
New data from Minnesota hospitals offers more insight into preventing pressure ulcers during long surgical procedures. Data collected through the state’s adverse event reporting system in 2009 found 13% of the 122 Stage 3, Stage 4, and unstageable pressure ulcers reported were related to long surgical procedures. Attention to this…
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