FDA: Hospira recalls four lots of Labetalol Hydrochloride
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 23 announced the recall by Hospira Inc (Lake Forest, Illinois) of three lots of Labetalol Hydrochloride Injection, USP, 100 mg/20 mL vial (NDC 0409-2267-25), and one lot of Labetalol Hydrochloride Injection, USP, Novaplus (NDC 0409-2267-25). The recall was initiated because…
Patient frailty linked to increased morbidity after ambulatory surgery procedures
Editor's Note Frailty was independently associated with postoperative morbidity in patients having common ambulatory general surgery procedures (ie, hernia, breast, thyroid, or parathyroid), this study finds. In this analysis of 140,828 patients in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, the relative risk of complications was increased…
Joint Commission improves access to revised EM standards for ambulatory care customers
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 21 announced that it has created specific versions of 19 elements of performance (EPs) for deemed ambulatory surgical centers and specific versions for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to improve access in the E-dition. The EPs were added for the Centers…
Effect of dedicated OR teams on clinical outcomes in a colorectal ERAS program
Editor's Note Dedicated OR teams for a colorectal Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program at Johns Hopkins Hospital led to anesthesia providers becoming more central to the ERAS network, which increased process measure compliance and improved clinical outcomes in this study. Before the dedicated OR teams were instituted, surgeons were…
Hand Hygiene TST now available as mobile app
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on February 21 that users of the Center for Transforming Healthcare’s Targeted Solutions Tool (TST) for Hand Hygiene can now record their observations on any mobile device or tablet by downloading a mobile app from the Google Play or Apple app store. The mobile…
Residency program expands ranks of experienced PACU nurses
Just as nursing schools don’t include the operating room in their curriculums, they also don’t include any instruction on the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). And like the OR, the PACU is having trouble recruiting new nurses. In September 2015, Houston Methodist Hospital began a PACU residency program to train new…
Bullying: From conflict to confrontation to civility in the OR--Part 3
When Carol Schneider, MSN, RN, CCRN, CPAN, became manager of a postanesthesia care unit (PACU) at Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts, she found a plethora of problems, including poor communication skills, low employee engagement scores, and bullying from surgeons and staff. “It was a very bad climate that was putting…
Editorial
Creating a more harmonious work environment is a struggle for some OR leaders. Tips on how to achieve this were offered during the 2017 OR Manager Conference and the 2018 OR Business Management Conference (ORBMC), and we share some of these in the March issue. A dysfunctional atmosphere in the…
Storytelling can make or break staff morale
Disengagement costs organizations money through lost productivity, not to mention the risk of errors that a disengaged workforce brings. Yet in August 2017, Gallup reported that only 32% of people are engaged at work. Much of disengagement can be traced to what Cy Wakeman, president and founder of Reality-Based Leadership,…
Pledge makes positive culture a priority in the OR--Part 1
An organization’s culture is shaped by the collective attitudes and behaviors of the people who work there, and if no one is willing to make personal changes, no program of the month is likely to have a lasting impact. To change their attitudes and behaviors, people must be made aware…