Small ASC Medicare update recommended
A government advisory panel has recommendeda0.6% inflation update for Medicare payments to ambulatory surgery centers for 2011. The recommendation came from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Though MedPAC does not have an official role in setting the inflation update, its recommendations are influential with Congress and the Centers for…
Pilot finds ASC infection control lapses
Pilot survey: ASC infection control lapses Infection control category Facilities with lapses* Examples of lapses Hand hygiene, use of gloves 12/62 (19%) 4 facilities had providers who failed to perform hand hygiene after contact with blood, body fluids, or nonintact skin. Injection and medication safety 19/67 (28%) 18 facilities used…
Walking the tightrope of costs, preference
Purchasing managers are used to walking a tightrope between tough bargaining with suppliers and respect for the product preferences of physicians. Eventually, purchasing professionals, as well as physicians, realize these goals need not be inconsistent. The best value often is in the best product. At many ambulatory surgery centers (ASC),…
Forum
To the Editor: I have read the article titled, "Blunting sharps injuries in the OR continues to be a work in progress" (January 2010) and would like to add information about research that I have carried out on the ability of the hands-free technique to reduce the risk of transmission…
A plan for fixing sterile reprocessing
Every morning when the central service (CS) staff arrived for work, they were greeted by a jumble of unprocessed sets left from the previous day. There were service problems with the OR, and morale was low. “When the first shift came in, there was a never-ending pile of sets. They…
A Lean process for OR technology
With tighter budgets and long lists of technology requests, organizations need a fair and systematic way to set priorities. At Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) in Seattle, where Lean manufacturing principles are part of the culture, it was natural to apply Lean to the review of new surgical supplies and…
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…
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…
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