Joint Commission urges hospitals to share successes via CSME
Editor's Note The Joint Commission is urging accredited hospitals to share their performance measure solutions in the Core Measure Solution Exchange (CSME). CSME is an interactive, online, peer-to-peer collaborative network where hospitals that have attained excellent performance on core measures, including accountability measures, can share their success stories. To date,…
Surgical resident work hours reform does not improve patient safety
Editor's Note Work-hour restrictions for surgical resident, revised nationally 4 years ago to protect patients against fatigue-related errors, have not had the desired effect of lowering postoperative complication rates, according to this new study. Researchers from the American College of Surgeons found no significant difference in surgical outcomes between 1…
Efficient health information exchange could significantly lower costs
Editor's Note Including a health information exchange query into emergency department patient care could significantly reduce the number of tests ordered and reduce costs, finds this study. Efficient health information exchange was associated with a 52% reduction in lab tests and a 36% reduction in radiology exams per patient ordered…
Time-to-readmission after surgery linked to increased mortality
Editor's Note Surgical readmissions within 10 days of discharge were disproportionately common and associated with increased mortality in this study. Increasing time-to-readmission correlated with a stepwise decrease in mortality: For example, 90-day mortality was 12.6% in patients readmitted between 1 and 5 days, 11.4% at 6 to 10 days, and…
SCOREing patient safety with a proactive approach
Avoiding preventable harm in the OR is the goal of any surgical services department, and meeting that goal requires excellent communication and collaboration among staff members. At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the Safe Care in the OR Everytime (SCORE) project has raised awareness about safety and engaged front-line…
Analytics: A powerful tool for OR process improvements
Analytics is a buzzword in today’s healthcare world, but behind the buzz is a very real tool. If used appropriately, analytics can help OR managers achieve improvements in stubborn problems such as turnover time. But OR leaders must first understand analytics principles before applying them in their management practice. Analytics…
Fine-tuning the Munro Scale for pressure ulcers
Pressure ulcers affect up to 3 million adults in the US each year, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Surgical patients are at high risk to develop pressure ulcers because of immobility during long procedures and anesthesia that blocks sensitivity to pain and pressure. Estimates of treatment…
Better communication and teamwork improve sterile processing efficiency
Relations between the OR and the sterile processing department (SPD) are not always smooth. OR staff need timely, accurate instrument trays that meet the highest standards of safety. Anything short of 100% performance leads to complaints about the SPD. But many OR staff members do not appreciate the challenges faced…
OR staff reap rewards of paperless patient tracking system
Clearing a patient for surgery is no easy feat, and a completely paper-based workflow can be very inefficient. Switching to a paperless tracking system has cut labor and costs in the preanesthesia screening services (PASS) department at Sinai Hospital, LifeBridge Health, Baltimore, and nurse leaders there hope to integrate the…
Step-by-step approach helps reduce specimen errors in the OR
The number of specimens that are mishandled on a nationwide basis is difficult to know, but even one such incident is too much for any patient who is affected. “If a specimen is placed in a fixative and it wasn’t supposed to be, additional testing may be compromised,” says Ann…
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