OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 Shortened hours for preoperative fasting in otherwise healthy patients with no comorbidities have been in place for 12 years. They are left essentially unchanged in a new update by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) of its practice guidelines for preoperative fasting.…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 How well hospitals perform on SCIP measures will affect part of their Medicare payment starting in late 2012. Yet a new study is the fourth to find that the SCIP infection measures aren’t correlated with surgical site infection (SSI) rates. In the…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 Impact on ASCs of economic conditions ASCs that have experienced financial difficulties due to current economic conditions Financial difficulties these ASCs have experienced: Financial challenges continue to buffet ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), according to the 21st annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. Almost…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 Respondents to hospital survey Region Response Northeast 17% Midwest 39% South 26% West 19% OR directors and managers are striving to stay ahead of a weak economy, according to this year’s OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. Much has changed in the past 10…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 More than 60% of uniforms worn by physicians and nurses tested positive for potentially pathogenic bacteria, including drug-resistant organisms, in a new study from Israel. The team of researchers collected swab samples from 3 parts of the uniforms of 75 RNs and…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 9; September 2011 The Food and Drug Administration should replace its 35-year-old 510(k) process for medical devices, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) urges in a new report. The IOM finds the process is flawed as a means to screen devices for safety and efficacy before…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 9; September 2011 Have you faced any of these situations? You receive loaner instruments for a case the same morning the case is scheduled. You receive loaner instruments without cleaning/sterilization instructions for use (IFU). You receive loaner sets you have never seen before. Neither the…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 9; September 2011 Hiring RN new graduates for the OR was almost unheard of 15 years ago. Now 74% of OR directors and managers in the 2011 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey say they accept new grads and RNs without OR experience. To help ease the…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 9; September 2011 Nurse residency recommendation Recommendation 3: Implement nurse residency programs. State boards of nursing, accrediting bodies, the federal government, and health care organizations should take actions to support nurses’ completion of a transition-to-practice program (nurse residency) after they have completed a prelicen-sure or…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 9; September 2011 Why more BSN-prepared nurses are needed Though the causal relationship between RNs’ academic degrees and patient outcomes is not conclusive, according to the Future of Nursing report, several studies report a significant association between RN education and outcomes in acute care: At…

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