Uncategorized Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 14, issued Sentinel Event Alert 63: Optimizing smart infusion pump safety with DERS [dose error reduction software]. Though smart infusion pumps combine computer technology and drug libraries (stored in DERS) to limit the potential for dosing errors, errors still occur each year. Bypassing…
Editor's Note In this study, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, find that ambulatory surgery offers significant cost savings and generally superior 30-day outcomes compared to inpatient surgery. Of 73,724 patients having hernia repair, primary total or partial thyroidectomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, or laparoscopic appendectomy in…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 6, launched the SAFER Dashboard for its accredited healthcare organizations. The dashboard, which is accessible on an organization’s Joint Commission Connect extranet site, is a data analytic tool that allows organizations to view their survey data and national comparison data in one place.…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on March 17, identified the recall by ACIST of its Kodama Intravascular Ultrasound Catheter as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because the O-ring housing tubing may squeeze and damage the O-ring. If there is damage, broken O-ring pieces…
Editor's Note Cindy Kildgore, MSHA, BSN, RN, CNOR, has been appointed the new Education Coordinator for the OR Manager Conference. Kildgore will head the 2021 OR Manager Conference Program Committee, comprising twenty perioperative leaders, to build the event’s conference agenda. Kildgore was a perioperative services director for more than 20…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 10 announced that it will be returning to unannounced onsite surveys. Beginning March 15, organizations will no longer receive a phone call or email when it has been determined the area is at low enough risk for an accreditation survey team to visit.…
Editor's Note Healthcare employment in the US was down in February to a seasonally adjusted 15,914,500 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 5. That’s down 19,900 jobs since January and down 577,600 jobs compared to a year ago. The overall unemployment rate is 6.2%.
Editor's Note ECRI’s Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a collaborative of national health IT safety experts, has released a new guidance to improve patient safety by reducing the number of alert notifications from computerized ordering systems. Their just-released white paper, “Safe Practices to Reduce CPOE [computerized provider order entry]…
Rockville, MD: OR Manager today announced a partnership with LeanTaaS, a leading Silicon Valley based technology innovator that transforms patient access and operational performance , to launch a platform that allows perioperative and hospital leaders, surgeons, and anesthesiologists to gain timely access to proven processes, policies, and innovative technologies that…
Editor's Note Owners of hospitals in Chicago and Los Angeles plan to close their facilities in the first half of 2021, the January 14 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles informed its workers on December 31, 2020, that the hospital would be suspending all patient care…
