Editor's Note Patient safety approaches that combine teamwork training and systems interventions are more effective than either approach alone, this study finds. The study involved 4-month safety improvement interventions in 5 UK hospitals using teamwork training (TT); systems redesign and standardization (SOP); Lean quality improvement; SOP plus TT; or Lean…

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Turnover time is a major concern for OR leaders. We surveyed OR Manager readers last year to identify the business and efficiency issues they want to know more about. Reducing turnover times ranked second, just under cost control. Extended turnovers clearly affect labor costs, but they also have a strong…

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Bristol Hospital had a supply problem. Instruments were often missing from case carts, so nurses had to scramble to find the items on the morning of a scheduled procedure. Staff wondered whether the problem was caused by shortages, but a Lean process revealed an entirely different scenario and forged a…

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Staff in the cardiovascular OR area of the new Sheikh Zayed clinical tower at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore will be able to locate certain equipment via computer and use a Skype-like camera system to share images of instruments and supplies with the sterile core and sterile processing unit.…

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Imaging has a long history in the operating room. In the 1960s, x-ray units were mounted on the ceiling, as they might be today. But the surgeon had to go to an adjacent room to view the image, and images could only be stored for 10 minutes. Mobile C-arms, introduced…

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Every morning when the central service (CS) staff arrived for work, they were greeted by a jumble of unprocessed sets left from the previous day. There were service problems with the OR, and morale was low. "When the first shift came in, there was a never-ending pile of sets. They…

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OR managers making a major conversion such as an endomechanical or a suture manufacturer change, face as much pressure as an Olympic athlete. Setting up for a successful conversion begins with understanding a simple equation. "You have to look at 2 components when doing conversions—logistics, or the supply chain side,…

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OR nurse managers make it their business to stay on top of new technology, but even they are challenged when faced with building or remodeling a suite of ORs. Wired or wireless phones? How much imaging equipment? Can I afford a supply tracking system? There are just a few of…

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The award-winning new 8-story E.W. and Mary Firstenburg Tower at Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington, includes a dedicated Heart and Vascular Center with 6 interventional rooms and 2 ORs. The hospital is one of the first in the country to offer an integrated center with interventional radiology, cardiovascular,…

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Almost a year after moving to computerized preference cards, the OR nursing staff in a small community hospital still didn't want to give up the 5 × 7 cards they had relied on for years. They liked the convenience of jotting down changes and found the computerized cards were not…

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