Team members simply introducing themselves to one another at the start of a case made a difference in the rate of infectious events in a pilot study. The rate was 1.9% when the introductions were documented and 21.1% when they were not. (The infectious event rate included surgical site infections,…

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Preparing patients for surgery at Cullman Regional Medical Center in Cullman, Alabama, used to take about 200 phone calls a day. Here’s a typical scenario: The OR is ready for the next patient. The OR calls the same-day surgery unit and asks if the patient is ready. Same-day surgery says…

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Surgical checklists have gained traction in recent years as studies have shown that they improve patient safety. Using surgical crisis checklists might be the next logical step, judging by a recent simulation study. OR staff missed just 6% of life-saving steps when using crisis checklists, but when staff relied on…

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Since the early days of aviation, pilots have used checklists before, during, and after each flight. Cooks follow recipes. Builders don’t build without team meetings and signoffs at every step. Health care professionals, however, only recently began to adopt checklists. Often, the excuse has been that medicine is an art,…

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See it, say it, fix it. That saying by a former FedEx pilot set the stage for a major quality improvement effort in surgical services at a South Carolina medical center. A key QI tool is debriefings performed at the end of every case. These quick exchanges help to bring…

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Nearly two-thirds (60%) of employees who leave a position do so because of their relationship with their direct supervisor, according to the Studer Group, a health care consulting organization. “Satisfaction is about relationship,” says Marcus Erb, senior research partner at the Great Place to Work Institute, which helps organizations become…

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Imagine sitting through a discussion with a surgeon or nurse and not understanding a single word—or worse, misinterpreting key information. Unfortunately, that’s the situation for many patients and their families because millions of people in the US have insufficient health literacy skills. A review in the American Journal of Surgery…

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Use of personal mobile devices is pervasive in surgery departments. As in the rest of life, they bring benefits but also risks, OR Manager found in an online survey. An overwhelming majority of respondents—86%—say they believe personal use of mobile devices in the OR sometimes distracts providers from patient care.…

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A 20-year-old nursing student, Emily, was excited to be on her pediatrics rotation and taking care of Tommy, a 3-year-old leukemia patient. One day, when Tommy’s mom was out of the room, Emily asked Tommy if she could take his picture. He readily agreed. When she got home, Emily excitedly…

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Nurses texting between—or even during—cases. Anesthesia providers playing games on their cell phones. A surgeon answering calls during surgery using his Bluetooth device. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have introduced a brand of constant communication—and a management challenge. Banning the devices isn’t the answer. Instead, health care needs to…

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