The 2022–2023 fiscal budget for most health facilities has now been approved. Leaders across the board are facing unprecedented challenges with retaining their staff. And those leaders who choose to invest on their teams’ professional development are seeing the best results. Most, if not all, facilities have a bucket set…

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Is there really a nursing shortage? “Is this a question or a statement?” asks Ruth P. Shumaker, BSN, RN, CNOR, executive director perioperative services, Regional One Health, Germantown, Tennessee. “It’s a little bit of both,” she answers. “Some of it has been self-made, and some of it is because we…

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Electronic health records (EHRs) have been decried as a drag on an organization’s efficiency and a source of frustration for clinicians and managers. Complaints related to documentation time, compatibility with other systems, and report generation are common. These shortcomings were reflected in the 2022 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. More than…

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As organizations adapt to COVID-19 and the number of severe cases eases in many areas of the country, leaders in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are seeing a significant uptick in volume of surgical procedures, according to the 2022 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. More than half (56%) reported increased volume in…

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Healthcare costs in the US have increased exponentially in recent years. Surgical procedures are especially costly. Cost control without sacrificing high quality care is the ultimate goal for many surgical practices and payers. Alternative practices and payment models have been explored to meet this goal. Episode-based payments, more commonly known…

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Editor's Note This study from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds a severe decline in surgical procedure volumes across specialties during the peak of COVID-19, and after the peak and vaccine release periods, the overall volume did not fully recover. Of 129,956 surgical procedures analyzed during four…

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Editor's Note In this annual survey published by Avanza Healthcare Strategies and titled “2021–2022 Hospital Leadership ASC Survey,” senior healthcare executives and clinical leaders shared insights into hospital-owned and hospital-physician joint venture ambulatory surgery center (ASC) trends. The responses show that “hospitals and health systems of all sizes are expanding…

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Editor's Note On Sunday, August 7, the Senate passed a spending bill allocating billions of dollars to climate reform and healthcare focused programs, including provisions that give “Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices for a small subset of drugs” and extend “enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies” for 3 years,…

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Editor's Note  The number of Americans without health insurance coverage has hit a record low of 8% this year, exceeding the previous low of 9% in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services July 3 reports. Since 2020, 5.2 million people have gained coverage, including 4 million adults and…

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Editor's Note This Canadian study finds that hospitals impacted by COVID-19 can reduce their surgical backlogs by scheduling elective surgeries on the weekends. Using machine learning algorithms, the researchers demonstrated that even after resuming their usual level of surgical cases, the wait list would not decrease without a substantial increase…

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