Good questions lay foundation for powerful leadership pipeline
Success for any new leader hinges on the ability to be both “student” and “teacher” because the role requires learning and mentoring. Striking a balance between these roles can be especially daunting for new perioperative services leaders, which is why Bruce Tulgan was invited to speak at the 2019 OR…
Artificial intelligence makes surgical 'black box' smarter
Perioperative services departments have been slow to adopt the black boxes used in the aviation industry, partly because it can take a large team of experts hours to analyze data collected by the box. However, the team behind a surgical black box is using artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly cut…
Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2019
Healthcare is striving to become an industry of high-reliability organizations, and part of being a high-reliability industry means staying vigilant and identifying problems proactively. ECRI Institute’s annual Top 10 list helps organizations identify looming patient safety challenges and offers suggestions and resources for addressing them. ECRI Institute relied on event…
From NASA to the OR: How to launch on-time starts
Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, located in Lake Forest, Illinois, has taken a giant leap in curtailing late starts in the OR. In December 2016, the facility’s on-time start percentage was only 37%. Perioperative team members dug in their heels and, by August 2017, increased their on-time starts to 77%.…
What should you do if your sterilizer fails?
A sterilization failure is a significant event. Receiving a positive biological indicator (BI) result from a sterilizer can be devastating and presents a patient safety concern because it could result in infection. This article addresses the proper action to take in the event of a positive BI result and biological…
Cardiology services: The next wave in ASCs?
Many experts see cardiovascular (CV) care as the next wave in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and a hybrid office-based lab (OBL)/ASC model is gaining momentum across the country. Robert J. Zasa, MSHHA, FACMPE, president and CEO of Ambulatory Systems Development, LLC, in Incline Village, Nevada, sees the hybrid arrangement as…
Study: Negative pressure wound therapy lowers SSI risk
Editor's Note In this study, the use of negative pressure wound therapy resulted in a significantly lower risk of surgical site infections (SSIs) than standard surgical incision closure. A total of 123 patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy were randomized to receive either negative pressure wound therapy or a standard closure of the…
FDA: Class I recall of Ethicon circular staplers
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 16 identified the recall by Ethicon of its Endo-Surgery and Endo-Surgery Endoscopic Curved Intraluminal Staplers with adjustable height staples as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because Ethicon confirmed that uncut washers in the staplers and malformed…
Performance on patient safety measures linked to hospital financial performance
Editor's Note Hospitals that perform better on measures to prevent postoperative complications also have better performance on measures of profitability, this study finds. Improved patient safety performance was associated with higher net patient revenue for five of seven Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures, including starting and stopping preventive antibiotics…
Leapfrog Group: More than 160,000 preventable deaths occur in hospitals each year
Editor's Note A study published May 15 by the Leapfrog Group finds that more than 160,000 preventable deaths occur in US hospitals annually, a decline of about 56,000 from 3 years ago. The Leapfrog Group uses hospital performance on 16 patient safety measures to assign hospital grades. Of the 2,620…