Safety/Quality
In reducing complications, plan on less revenue
One would think that reducing surgical complications would lower a hospital’s costs in addition to being the right thing to do. But the hospital’s bottom line can be seriously affected. The loss can be substantial unless new surgical volume is added to make up for the loss, a new analysis…
Reducing variation in total knee replacements
A new study in the journal Health Affairs of total knee replacement (TKR) confirms that wide variations in care exist among hospitals based on factors such as geographic location. The High Value Healthcare Collaborative found significant variations in TKR among the 5 participating health care systems. Among these were length…
Tying anesthesia salaries to on-time starts, turnovers
Better data coupled with an at-risk salary model for anesthesiologists have helped one academic medical center to improve its performance for on-time starts and turnover time between cases. The hospital’s surgical volume was growing, and it had to make the most of its OR time. Yet a lot of the…
Time Busters: A Lean team tackles OR turnover
First of 3 articles on applying Lean management to turnover time. Sinai Hospital of Baltimore faced a challenge. The block schedule was maxed out, even though new ORs had been added. There was a need to eke out every available minute. Despite efforts to improve turnover time, it had plateaued…
Restructuring circulator nurse role aids turnover
Second of 3 articles on applying Lean management to turnover time. Efforts to weed waste from turnover time quickly took root in one 10-OR department. Within about a month after OR staff and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) embraced the new process, turnover time decreased from about 26 minutes…
Visual cues help to improve the turnover process
Third of 3 articles on applying Lean management to turnover time. Creating a “visual workplace” is a principle in Lean management. Visual cues have been one solution for improving turnover time at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. In a visual workplace, the goal is to make waste, problems,…
Lean boosts OR morale, productivity
Lean management in a teaching hospital’s otolaryngology OR improved efficiency, morale, and finances in a study from the University of Michigan (U-M), Ann Arbor. After 18 months: • turnover time (from exit of one patient to arrival of the next) fell by nearly one-third to 29 minutes • turnaround time…
New imaging modalities raise the bar for safety
Since the days of the first rudimentary radiographs, radiation safety has been a concern in the OR, but that concern has risen as the number of hybrid ORs and procedures with imaging has risen. “The level of image guidance in the OR, whether it’s radiographic or fluoroscopy, has become highly…
Balancing staff productivity with open OR time
With hospitals under ever greater economic pressure, perioperative managers are expected to hew closely to staffing productivity targets, meaning they must match staffing as closely as possible to the hours of surgery actually performed. They’re also expected to grow surgical volume. Hospitals’ revenue depends on it. To grow volume, ORs…
Data for benchmarking your OR's performance
Hospitals are facing stiff economic winds. They are challenged by shrinking reimbursement from Medicare and Medicare, even as more patients will be covered by these publicly funded programs. Perioperative managers and directors are under pressure to make the most of their department’s resources. You’re being asked to measure every aspect…
Free Daily News
- Healthcare employment up in January
- OR Business Management Conference, daily coverage begins
- Healthgrades names best hospitals for patient outcomes
- FDA announces Class 1 recall for ventilator system
- Research review: Nurse-led preoperative visits reduce anxiety, build trust
- Moody’s downgrades health insurance outlook as medical costs surge
- Criminalizing anesthesia errors has unintended consequences, experts warn
- FDA approves new non-opioid analgesic
- Legislation proposes to halt Medicare physician payment cuts
- Cigna ties executive pay to patient experience