- Boston hospitals supporting patients and staff in bombing aftermath
- Pain and patient experience: A business partnership
- Editorial
- Building cohesion, community, and commitment across multiple generations working in the OR
- Implementing a daily huddle protects patients, avoids delays
- Diverse communication styles are most effective for managing multigenerational staff
- Efficiency soars in wake of strategic OR cultural changes
- New AORN recommendations focus on infection prevention, patient safety
- Surgical growth hinges on good service line information
- Risk assessment helps prevent falls in ACS patients
- Minnesota’s adverse event reporting system has led to patient safety improvements
Boston hospitals supporting patients and staff in bombing aftermath
Just before 2:50 pm on April 15, 2 postanesthesia care nurses from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) crossed the Boston Marathon finish line. Their elation at finishing the race soon turned to fear when they heard the first of 2 explosions. They began searching for friends and family who…
Pain and patient experience: A business partnership
Managing patients’ pain is no longer just a clinical goal—it’s a business necessity. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has started incorporating value-based purchasing (VBP) scores, which include customer satisfaction, into hospital reimbursement payments. Of the total VBP score, 30% comes from results from the Hospital Consumer Assessment…
Editorial
Last month we shared a positive view of the impact of health care reform on nursing. Kathleen Sanford, DBA, RN, CENP, FACHE, who will speak at the OR Manager Conference in September, said more emphasis on keeping people well will offer “an opportunity for clinical staff to make a difference”…
Building cohesion, community, and commitment across multiple generations working in the OR
Managing today’s multigenerational perioperative workforce can seem daunting, but understanding the strengths of each group and knowing how best to communicate with them can turn challenges into opportunities. The first step toward promoting generational interrelationships—and to better manage perioperative services for the future—is to “create a generational profile of your…
Implementing a daily huddle protects patients, avoids delays
Sixth in a series on ten elements of safer surgery. Could you and your team find 30 minutes a day to prepare for the next day’s surgical schedule? The effort can be worthwhile. A Chicago-area hospital has found that a half-hour daily huddle not only heads off delays and…
Diverse communication styles are most effective for managing multigenerational staff
Because people are living and working longer, 4 generations of employees are now toiling side by side—and not always in harmony. Creating a workplace where all generations can thrive is both challenging and crucial to a manager’s success. “The biggest challenge and opportunity for growth is to recognize that you…
Efficiency soars in wake of strategic OR cultural changes
Changes in staff responsibilities and greater collaboration have contributed to dramatically improved first-case on-time starts at the University of Louisville Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky—from about 35% to 86% in a little over a year. Turnover time has been reduced, too, with slow but steady progress suggesting that revamping existing structures can…
New AORN recommendations focus on infection prevention, patient safety
AORN leaders’ efforts over the past few years have led to evidence-rated recommendations for some of the 2013 Perioperative Standards and Recommended Practices (RPs), representing “landmark progress in the evolution of recommended practices,” according to Ramona Conner, MSN, RN, CNOR, manager of the standards and recommended practices. Conner introduced speakers…
Surgical growth hinges on good service line information
OR Business Performance is a series intended to help OR managers and directors improve the success of their business. Does your hospital’s CEO expect you to grow surgical volume in the upcoming fiscal year? Hospitals have always depended on surgical services to drive revenue and profit. Today, in the…
Risk assessment helps prevent falls in ACS patients
Anyone undergoing surgery is at heightened risk of falling, especially during recovery from sedation, and for the most vulnerable patients, a fall can be disabling or even deadly. Falls are among the adverse events monitored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and state surveyors. The science of assessing…
Minnesota's adverse event reporting system has led to patient safety improvements
The number of patient falls, wrong-site procedures, and suicides increased slightly in Minnesota during 2012, but pressure ulcers, medication errors, and objects left in patients decreased, according to a recent study of the state’s hospitals and surgery centers. The “Adverse Health Events in Minnesota 2012 Public Report,” released in January…
Free Daily News
- FDA: Surgical mesh mini-slings comparable to mid-urethral slings for stress urinary incontinence
- Federal guidelines require written consent for pelvic exams at hospitals, medical schools
- Survey: More than half of ED nurses experienced violence in past month
- Heart transplant research proves out 24-hour organ preservation method
- Healthcare safety report: Outcomes improving, but workplace violence persists
- Annual CMS rules support underserved, under-resourced communities, promote value-based care
- Data resource details causes, health implications of sleep deprivation
- Medical error initiative from Joint Commission affiliate NQF targets preventable harm, “never events”
- EPA rule to limit dangerous emissions from medical sterilization plants
- Newly FDA-approved microsurgical system holds promise for training, new treatments