Keynoter Tim Porter-O'Grady sees new roles for perioperative nurses
Tim Porter-O’Grady, DM, EdD, ScD(h), APRN, FAAN, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s OR Manager Conference, which takes place September 17-19 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. The conference features 4 tracks—ambulatory surgery centers, business management, a masters series, and new manager—designed to address…
Collaboration and creative thinking hold down the number of OR holds
Putting a hold on the OR can lead to revenue losses no manager wants to see. At Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, OR holds were averaging 1,100 minutes per month. Jodi Koch, BSN, RN, director of perioperative services, and Kathleen Duckworth, RN, CPAN, their colleagues got holds…
Using Lean strategies to improve operating room efficiency
Improvements in first case on-time starts and turnover time at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, attest to the success of using Lean strategies. Within an 8-month period, first-case on-time starts (FCOTS) jumped from 35% to 72%, and the monthly average overall turnover time (TOT) for a 7-month period was…
Critics call quality report changes impractical, pay updates unfair
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider the next round of quality measures contained in the Calendar Year 2014 Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Proposed Rule and to revisit the payment update formula. Quality Collaboration: Revise measures In a memorandum to…
Safer Surgery: Six steps that aim for excellence in sterile processing
Fourth in a series on ten elements of safer surgery. It’s axiomatic that sterile processing is critical to safe and effective surgical care. The sterile processing department (SPD) is like an “engine room” for the OR, where the staff produce the sterile instruments and other equipment needed for surgical…
Keynoter advocates for a 'transparency revolution'
Marty Makary, MD, MPH, now a prominent cancer surgeon at Johns Hopkins, says he once took a year off from medical school because the culture didn’t feel right to him—“it wasn’t telling patients the truth.” He had witnessed wide variations in quality and the medical community’s lack of response. He…
A 'cockpit checklist' reduces defects in instrument sets
Checklists are a common safety strategy in the OR. Why not have a checklist for the sterile processing department (SPD)? A “cockpit checklist” has helped reduce defects in instrument sets at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, by serving as the final quality assurance audit before a set enters…
Quality reporting for ASCs is off to a good start
Starting October 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began requiring quality reports on Medicare claim forms from ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). From all indications, complications were few, and ASCs already are using the new statistics to gain insight into operational trends. Ultimately, the self-reports of patient…
Preventing SSIs: Keys to solutions lie with your front-line clinicians
How will a surgical site infection (SSI) develop in the next patient who has colorectal surgery? What can we do to prevent it? These 2 questions helped a team at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to identify 6 interventions that achieved a 33% reduction in SSIs after colon operations. The…
Editorial
There are good reasons to think about how patients experience your OR and your facility. It isn’t about private rooms and better food. The quality of their experience is fundamental to keeping patients safe. A new analysis from HealthGrades finds hospitals with the highest ratings for nurse and physician communications…
Free Daily News
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