As part of a special series on artificial intelligence (AI), OR Manager is taking a deep dive into the many facets of this new technology and its impact on patient care. Part 1 and Part 2 of the introduction to AI (May 2019 and June 2019) defined types of AI…
Editor's Note Multimodal analgesia with minimal opiates improved pain control and significantly decreased opiate use and opiate-related adverse effects after discharge from elective total hip replacement surgery, finds this study. The 235 patients analyzed received one of three discharge pain regimens: Group A: scheduled-dose multimodal analgesia (ie, acetaminophen, meloxicam, gabapentin)…
Editor's Note The Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task force, a Health and Human Services (HHA) federal advisory committee on May 30 released its final report. The report calls for a balanced, individualized, patient-centered approach to pain management and underscores the need to address stigma, risk assessment, access to care,…
Editor's Note Patients on an opioid-sparing postoperative pain management pathway reported minimal or no opioid use and high satisfaction and pain control in this study. A total of 190 patients having one of six different procedures participated in the pathway and were advised to use acetaminophen and ibuprofen every 6…
Though long fasting before a surgical procedure is tied to increased patient risks, the outdated guideline of NPO after midnight continues to be practiced by many healthcare organizations. In 1999, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) revised their fasting guidelines to clear liquids up to 2 hours before surgery and…
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…
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…
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…
Editor's Note The nurse work environment is associated with the quality of nursing care, nurse job outcomes, patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction, this study finds. This meta-analysis of 17 articles that reported data from 2,677 hospitals, 141 nursing units, 165,024 nurses, and 1,368,420 patients, in 22 countries found consistent, significant…
Editor's Note In this study of low-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis, outcomes were significantly better at 1 year follow-up with transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR) than surgical aortic-valve replacement. In 1,000 patients at 71 centers who were randomized to undergo either TAVR or surgical aortic-valve replacement, the rate of the…