In every OR, the complicated dance of surgical care coordination—the series of handoffs between stakeholders throughout the surgery lifecycle—is performed mainly in the background. Those stakeholders include physician offices, schedulers, preadmission testing, insurance verification, vendors, sterile processing, supply chain, anesthesia, and surgical staff. But what does it look like when…

Read More

Takeaways • VA and Navy hospitals are subject to many of the same requirements as their civilian counterparts, including adherence to quality and infection control standards as well as regulations from organizations such as AORN. • Rank structure plays a significant role in forming and leading OR teams at Navy…

Read More

I was fresh out of the OR when I received a formal job offer from OR Manager. Although still hazy from an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy, I knew I would accept, reasoning the universe must be trying to tell me something. I also had no doubts about the other, very different…

Read More

Editor's Note: Non-monetary compensation to physicians is limited to no more than $507 for calendar year 2024, according to a report on the federal Stark Law published December 27 in Lexology. The Stark Law applies to non-cash or cash-equivalent payments from hospitals, physician groups, labs and other provider entities. The…

Read More

Editor's Note Nearly 200 members of Congress co-signed a letter urging House and Senate leaders to act quickly in order to prevent a 3.37% cut to Medicare reimbursement payments that was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024. The American Medical Association, which supports the effort, reported the news…

Read More

Editor's Note Recent announcements from The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) validate vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) as an established device sterilization method and warn against the use of the Synovo Total Hip Replacement system. Issued January 8, the announcement about VHP is part of the agency’s multi-pronged approach to…

Read More

Editor's Note Healthcare employment in the US rose by 37,700 from December 2023 to January 2024, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on January 5. Overall, employment rose by 2.7 million in 2023 (an average monthly gain of 225,000), which is less than the…

Read More

Editor's Note Published December 21, a year-long investigation by KFF Health News into medical device malfunctions found that the FDA allows the sale of most medical devices, including many implants, without requiring tests for safety or effectiveness. Instead, manufacturers need to show only that they have “substantial equivalence” to an…

Read More

Editor's Note Nursing exam pass rates are on the rise after years of decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a January 1 report from MedPage Today.   During 2020 and 2021, the share of US candidates who passed the national licensure exam to work as an RN fell from…

Read More

Editor's Note Guidelines for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about when healthcare workers should wear N95 masks are less stringent than those from California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), Medical Xpress reported on December 21. Specifically, the CDC’s advisory committee has suggested that health workers wear surgical…

Read More