OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 Take the right people and add the right software and the right processes. The result: an end-to-end surgical supply and inventory management system built on trust that yields useful data for decision making. In 2010, its first year, the team at the…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 An occasional column on Joint Commission issues. The reprocessing and storage of laryngoscope blades has been a hot button for Joint Commission surveyors, and OR managers have been asking how they can comply with the expectations. In answer, the Joint Commission on…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 On November 1, 2011, in posting the final 2012 outpatient payment rule, Medicare gave the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industry a reprieve in its quality reporting deadline and an unexpected pay hike. While industry experts are pleased with what they see as…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 A new high-throughput OR pod at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston is designed to expedite patient flow and make the most of the OR’s resources during regular weekday house. The 4-OR pod with 13 perianesthesia bays is part of a 28-OR…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 Home washing machines may not always use hot enough water to eliminate bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Acinetobacter from hospital uniforms, according to a study in the November 2011 Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Researchers in the UK tested nurses’…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 November 7-13, 2011, is Perioperative Nurse Week. The AORN Foundation is pleased to provide the opportunity to honor colleagues by making a donation to the Foundation in their name. An acknowledgment note will be sent to each colleague honored through a donation.…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 There is no standard method for charging for OR time. In this article, 5 OR business managers describe their OR charging structures, which primarily are based on the OR minute and assign a level of service based on resource utilization. The departments…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 For the first time, the Joint Commission has named the top performing hospitals on its key quality measures. On the list are 405 hospitals (about 14% of those accredited) that met 2 criteria for 2010: 95% or higher performance on a composite…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 The first nationwide system for collecting adverse events from anesthesia, pain management, and perioperative care has been set up by the Anesthesia Quality Institute. The intent of the Anesthesia Incident Reporting System (AIRS) is to collect information to help improve patient safety.…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 Older patients drove more safely than younger ones after ambulatory surgery, finds a study presented at the 2011 American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting in October in Chicago. With ambulatory surgery becoming more common and increased use of short-acting anesthetics, “our team recognized…

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