ASC staffing and surgical volume drop in response to pandemic
Nearly a third (30%) of ambulatory surgery center (ASC) leaders have experienced layoffs of direct care staff during the past year, according to the 2020 annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey, up from a mere 4% in 2019. COVID-19 is the likely culprit: Most of the comments received in response to…
Overcoming failure as a leader
Conscientious leaders strive for excellence and have high expectations of everyone around them. If you are like me, you may have been told at times to lower your expectations. But I believe if you raise the bar, people worth retaining will meet the bar if they have the support to…
Public health implications of chronic hospital nurse understaffing in COVID-19 era
Editor's Note This study by noted nurse researcher Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, finds that hospital nurses were burned out and working in understaffed conditions in the weeks preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, posing risks to the public’s health. The…
Joint statement provides guidance for maintaining essential surgery during COVID-19 pandemic
Editor's Note Four national organizations have released a joint statement on maintaining essential surgical procedures as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) reported on August 13. The joint statement from the ACS, American Society of Anesthesiologists, AORN, and American Hospital Association, provides a list of principles…
Decline in US COVID-19 deaths, cases
Editor's Note The US reported more than 376,000 COVID-19 cases and 7,200 deaths for the week ending August 9, marking the first decline in deaths after 4 weeks of increases, according to an August 10 Reuters analysis of Johns Hopkins data. COVID-19 cases in the US have now fallen for…
Effectiveness of government actions, country preparedness, socioeconomic factors on COVID-19 mortality, health outcomes
Editor's Note: Rapid border closures, full lockdowns, and wide-spread testing were not associated with statistically significant reductions in number of critical cases or overall COVID-19 mortality; however, they were significantly associated with increased patient recovery rates, this study of 50 countries finds. Increasing COVID-19 caseloads were associated with countries with…
Nimble response required to combat COVID-19 surges
Spikes in coronavirus cases starting in late June threatened to overwhelm hospitals in several states. Utah is one such state, but steps previously taken at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City suggest the 23-hospital system will be able to manage a surge. Leaders at Inova Health System in Falls Church,…
Data mining yields tool to predict OR staffing needs
Staffing to a block duration can be inefficient. Uncontrolled variables such as increased case complexity and unexpected staff absences can cause chaos. Leaders from Penn Medicine—Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia used data analytics to measure the efficiency of matching staffing against an optimized OR schedule, which allowed them to predict staffing…
Pandemic pressures include recruiting and retaining OR staff
Recruiting and retaining OR nurses is harder than ever in the COVID-19 era. Many healthcare facilities are reconstructing their surgical case schedules after the mandatory pause in elective procedures, and some are still on hold. OR leaders are focused largely on guiding staff through the crisis and working toward a…
Preoperative protocols enhance outpatient total joint outcomes
On January 1, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began reimbursing healthcare providers for total hip arthroplasty performed in outpatient hospital settings and total knee arthroplasty in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), thereby opening the floodgates for explosive growth in outpatient total joint arthroplasty (TJA). About a million…
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