Technology is starting to take its place as a supplement to manual counts in the effort to prevent retained surgical items (RSIs). RSIs persist despite the emphasis many ORs have placed on tightening their manual counting methods. Recent reports from California are an example of the challenge ORs are up…

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Hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) will receive small rate increases for outpatient services under the Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule for calendar year 2011. Hospitals face new quality reporting requirements, but none of the new measures is directly related to surgery. ASC quality reporting was postponed once again.…

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The term "flash sterilization" is going away. The new term is "immediate use sterilization." The new term better describes the process employed to steam sterilize items intended to be used immediately and not stored, say those who have worked on a joint position statement on immediate use sterilization. The statement,…

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Surprisingly, patients are just as susceptible to a wrong-site procedure outside the OR as they are in surgery, a new study finds. Also surprising: Nonsurgical specialties contributed to patient injuries from wrong-site procedures as much as surgical specialties did. The only death in the cases analyzed was from a patient…

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Third in a series on managing bone allografts. In the October issue, articles included were Allografts: Overview of the process; and Donor screening: First step in safety. In the November issue, articles included Help in evaluating bone allografts; Bone allografts: Options for healing; and Making good choices of DBM products.…

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Fourth in a series on selecting and hiring perioperative nurses and integrating them into the staff. So far, this series on onboarding has taken us from developing selection criteria to making a job offer through the initial phase of employment. The onboarding process for new OR circulators involves 14 steps…

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When your OR is selecting allograft tissue, how do you know which federal regulations govern their safety? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses a tiered approach to regulating these materials, explains Scott Brubaker, CTBS, chief policy officer for the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB). Minimally processed tissue…

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Flipping, double teaming, running ORs back-to-back. These are a few terms for the practice of providing multiple ORs for particular surgeons. The practice is widespread. A show of hands during a breakout session at the recent Managing Today's OR Suite conference in Orlando found nearly everyone used this practice. Flipping…

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