ECRI Institute PSO sheds light on opioid use in acute care
OR Manager, Inc., and ECRI Institute have joined in a collaboration to bring OR Manager readers periodic articles on topics such as medical technology management and procurement, risk management, and patient safety. ECRI Institute is an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care. Opioids are the…
What do 'patient first' care models look like?
Creating a positive patient experience creates patient satisfaction, which can affect reimbursement. But it’s not just business that calls many OR leaders to focus on patient experience. Having been a patient who has had surgery, it’s near and dear to my heart,” says Carol Pehotsky, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, ACNS-BC, CPAN,…
Innovative use for drug reduces postop nausea and vomiting
Editor's Note An innovative use for a known drug, amisulpride, is showing promise as an effective treatment for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), finds this study. Amisulpride works by blocking dopamine signaling in the body. A total of 1,147 patients undergoing general anesthesia, who had three or four PONV…
Web-based education raises patient satisfaction scores for outpatient orthopedic procedures
Editor's Note Enhanced patient satisfaction scores were seen in patients who received supplemental web-based education before having outpatient orthopedic surgical procedures in this study presented March 7 at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. A total of 177 patients were randomized to receive either routine education from the…
TAVR dramatically improves patients’ quality of life
Editor's Note Patients who have a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) experience a significant increase in quality of life, finds this study presented March 11 at the 2018 American College of Cardiology Scientific Session in Orlando. Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute (Salt Lake City) researchers found that TAVR patients ranked…
Model helps predict pain, functional outcomes after lumbar spine surgery
Editor's Note In this study, researchers used patient-reported outcome (PRO) scores from 15 hospitals in Washington to create a clinical prediction model for spine surgery patients that explains most of the variability in pain reduction and functional improvement after surgery. The researchers found that after lumbar fusion surgery: 58.0% had…
Opioids not better at reducing pain-related function than nonopioids
Editor's Note Opioids were no better than nonopioid medications at improving pain that interfered with activities such as walking, work, and sleep in patients with moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain, in this study. In 240 patients who were followed for 12 months, the…
Multimodal pain management reduces opioid use, complications after total joints
Editor's Note Using a multimodal approach to pain management was associated with decreased opioid use, opioid prescriptions, and opioid complications in total joint replacement patients in this study. Of 512,393 hip replacement and 1,028,069 knee replacement patients analyzed, multimodal pain management techniques were used in 85.6% during surgery, on the…
Total hip linked to increased life expectancy
Editor's Note Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is not only associated with improved quality of life but with increased life expectancy, this Swedish study finds. Of 131,808 patients having THA from 1999 to 2012, survival was 1% better in the first year than those who did not have surgery. Survival increased…
How many different procedures are right for your ASC?
When launching a new ambulatory surgery center (ASC), owners must consider a myriad of issues—financing, design, building construction or purchase, regulatory compliance, certification, staffing, and marketing. Underlying all of these considerations are which procedures the center will provide and whether the ASC will be single specialty, like gastrointestinal (GI) or…
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