Safety

Latest Issue
November 2025
Home Safety

Mobile ORs can change the game, bridge gaps in surgical care

Imagine an innovative, safe, and highly efficient OR not confined by walls but on wheels—crossing rugged terrains, bustling cities, and disaster-stricken areas to deliver life-saving surgical care in underserved areas. That is the premise and promise of mobile ORs. They are not just mobile units. With some of the technological…

Read More

By: David Cotriss
July 1, 2025
Share

Hidden head injury hazards expose cracks in OR safety culture

One of the most sobering moments in the career of anesthesiologist Cornelius Sullivan, MD, occurred not as a caretaker in the OR, but as a patient in the emergency department. Having been knocked out cold by a low-hanging monitor during a surgical procedure at Boston Children’s Hospital, he had to…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
July 1, 2025
Share

OR Business Management Summit Announces 2026 Program Committee 

Rockville, MD—June 24, 2025—OR Business Management Summit announced today its 2026 Program Committee—a dedicated, diverse team of perioperative business management leaders with deep experience in operational efficiency, financial performance, and strategic OR leadership. The event will take place February 9–11, 2026, at the Hilton Austin in Austin, TX.  A strategically…

Read More

By: Barbara Cucci
June 24, 2025
Share

How gender norms shape perioperative nurse career paths

Before Florence Nightingale revolutionized nursing in the mid-19th century, men played the crucial role of nurses on the battlefield. However, as time passed, nursing became a female-dominated profession. Men and women received the same level of training and worked together during World War I, but the men were called orderlies…

Read More

By: Kristi Van Winkle, RN ,BSN, LNC
June 18, 2025
Share

Sponsored Message

Amid outbreaks, vaccine policy shifts, experts offer practical strategies to safeguard OR staff

Vaccine health has been dominating the news amid ongoing measles and whooping cough outbreaks and high influenza activity last season. It is also on the minds of The Joint Commission surveyors, as the organization has updated infection control standards that took effect in July 2024 for hospitals and critical access…

Read More

By: Carina Stanton
June 11, 2025
Share

Leaders translate legislative priorities to perioperative practice

The wave of new legal requirements for surgical smoke evacuation across the country has given OR leaders a crash course in how to act on any new legislation. Based on this experience, complying with other new and pending laws will put these skills to the test. Major hurdles are likely…

Read More

By: Carina Stanton
June 5, 2025
Share

Sponsored Message

Standards strengthen sterilization, disinfection process chains

Preventing infection from contaminated surgical tools requires attention to every link in a complex chain of processes, from point-of-use pretreatment in the OR to the moment the freshly disinfected or sterilized item arrives at the next patient’s bedside. For those on the front lines, manufacturers’ written instructions for use (IFUs)…

Read More

By: Susan Klacik, BS, FCS, ACE, CHL, CIS, CRCST, AAMIF
May 28, 2025
Share

Telesurgery possibilities becoming more than remote

Remote surgery has come a long way since the first-ever case in 2001, when a surgeon in New York City operated on a patient in Strasbourg, France. No longer a product of science fiction, telesurgery’s advance promises to change—and save—countless lives, from patients in remote areas to those in warzones…

Read More

By: Steven John Cumper, B.App.Sc. (Osteo), M.Ost.
May 14, 2025
Share

How to build credibility after a promotion

Takeaways • Credibility and trust are intertwined. • Keeping a covenant with staff, cultivating executive presence, and building relationships help establish credibility. • Situations that pose challenges to building credibility include the first leadership role and leading in areas where the new manager lacks expertise. Whether it is a first-time…

Read More

By: Cynthia Saver, MS, RN
May 7, 2025
Share

Time for a surgical skills check? Inside the ACS stance on aging physicians

Takeaways • US surgeons have no mandated retirement age. According to the Aging Surgeon Program, “a patient death or serious negative event are currently the only things that prompt action to prevent a surgeon from practicing.” • Research on aging-related decline is clear, but nuanced, showing rates and scope vary…

Read More

By: Brita Belli
May 7, 2025
Share

Join our community

Learn More
Video Spotlight
Live chat by BoldChat