Editor's Note As hospitals begin ramping up elective surgical procedures, healthcare leaders face significant challenges, the June 23 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. A market research survey by Lumeon (Boston) found that the top operational concern for healthcare leaders is making sure patients feel safe to schedule and come into hospitals…

Read More

Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons on June 3 released new resources to help surgeons and hospitals address patients’ concerns about having surgical procedures that were delayed by COVID-19. The document, “Preparing to have surgery during the time of COVID-19,” includes a patient-surgeon discussion guide with suggested questions patients…

Read More

Editor's Note The overall incidence of COVID-19 in children who had preoperative screening was less than 1%; however, this varied greatly between regions, ranging from 0.22% to 2.65%. Included in the study were pediatric patients presenting for surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, and Seattle…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 3 announced that it supports the following positions for healthcare organizations to prevent nosocomial COVID-19 infections as they resume routine patient care. Organizations should continue to follow CDC recommendations for universal masking of staff, patients, and visitors. Personnel should wear filtering facepiece (N95)…

Read More

Elective surgical procedures that were temporarily suspended in mid-March are now on the table—or soon will be—at some US facilities. The ban, announced on March 18 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), was enacted to free up resources for facilities overwhelmed by surges of COVID-19 patients. On…

Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on all aspects of healthcare delivery worldwide. For children’s hospitals, the crisis has created unique challenges in ensuring patient and provider safety as well as helping to contain the spread of COVID-19 through their communities. According to the Centers for Disease Control…

Read More

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that led the United States to declare a national emergency and implement a ban on all elective diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, as well as elective surgery in inpatient and outpatient settings. On March 19, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) released guidance…

Read More

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is arguably the greatest advancement in surgery in the last 20 years. But even healthcare leaders who support the use of ERAS to achieve better outcomes can find it daunting to implement the protocols throughout their hospital systems. Standardizing practices across areas that have historically…

Read More

Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) on April 17 announced that the ACS, AORN, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), and American Hospital Association (AHA) together developed a roadmap to guide readiness, prioritization, and scheduling for safely resuming elective surgery. Highlights of the roadmap include: Implementing a policy for…

Read More

Planning for volume growth and adopting best business practices for the perioperative environment were overarching themes at the 2020 OR Business Management Conference (ORBMC) in late January. Leading healthcare industry clinicians and experts offered fresh insights into competing in the burgeoning outpatient surgery market and persuading stakeholders to switch to…

Read More