The Joint Commission's safety alert supports removal of surgical smoke
Surgical smoke is a complex issue that has not gained a lot of traction over the years. Legislation to mandate smoke evacuation was introduced more than 20 years ago, but the first law wasn’t passed until 2018, and only three US states thus far have enacted legislation. Release of The…
Editorial
The increasing availability of COVID-19 vaccines, along with proposed healthcare industry funding from the federal government, are reasons to feel hopeful about recovering from the pandemic. For people who are fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has green-lighted gathering with loved ones and resuming some activities that…
Conference keynote points the way to a purposeful life
Personal health and well-being have become higher priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people who previously may have ignored preventive care or postponed procedures are taking better care of themselves. Some are reexamining life choices as a result of changes taking place over the past year. “Many of us accept…
Collaborative anesthesia providers can help boost OR performance
Most high-performing ORs share something in common—an anesthesia group that is actively engaged in perioperative leadership, takes responsibility for organizational performance, and is fully invested in the success of the OR. Unfortunately, in many ORs, anesthesia providers focus narrowly on services and procedures, not the total performance of the surgery…
Editorial
This issue of OR Manager is being published just about a year after the nationwide shutdown that was implemented to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Failures on many fronts ensued in the months that followed, with an excessive death toll and unprecedented disruptions in every…
Importance of critical event debriefs cannot be overstated
During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers nationwide have experienced patient deaths on a scale like never before. Whether from COVID-19 or other complications, surgical services staff sometimes lose patients despite their best efforts, and these failures to rescue can leave lasting psychological or emotional scars. Many healthcare facilities have ramped…
Capture the right case data to maximize OR utilization
To rebound from the industry-wide disruption caused by COVID-19, many healthcare organizations are focused on optimizing OR processes to clear the backlog of elective surgical procedures and improve financial performance. However, traditional OR block management methods for surgical schedules provide limited foresight into what block time will ultimately go unused,…
Overcoming biases in the perioperative leadership journey
For BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) leaders who are healthcare professionals, ensuring the delivery of quality care is often made more difficult by the racial or ethnic bias they may encounter within their organizations. In this article, five BIPOC perioperative leaders share their experiences and offer advice for…
Nurse staffing expert, Linda Aiken, PhD, testifies on her research at NYS hospitals
Editor's Note Nurse staffing expert Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, testified at the New York State (NYS) Health Committee budget hearing on February 25 about her research on staffing levels in New York State. Among her research findings: Each patient reduction in nurses’ workloads was associated with a 13% decrease…
Association of COVID-19 positive antibody test with future risk of infection
Editor's Note This study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, finds that individuals who are antibody positive for COVID-19 based on commercial assays, versus those who are antibody negative, are at decreased risk of future COVID-19 infection. In this analysis of 3,257,478 patients with…
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- OR Manager Conference: Lowest rates expire in one week
- Hospitals boost cybersecurity budgets, staff
- Kentucky passes first-ever state law decriminalizing medical mistakes
- Kaiser Permanente data breach affects 13.4 million
- Study explores link between diverticulitis and colorectal cancer
- State lawmakers target rising healthcare costs via legislation on hospital facility fees
- FDA medical device Class 1 recalls trend upward
- Data cast doubt on recommendation to delay weight-loss meds prior to surgery