OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 What might be most effective in preventing wrong surgery? A new analysis from Pennsylvania identifies best practice principles that might have prevented 431 wrong procedures reported in the state since 2004. The 21 principles were published in 2009 by the Pennsylvania Patient…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 10; October 2011 Christine Halowell, MS, RN, CNOR For this year’s OR Manager of the Year, Christine Halowell, MS, RN, CNOR, perioperative nursing had her at hello. She gravitated to the OR the first time she had an opportunity to follow a surgical patient during…

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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. 9; September 2011 The government’s long-awaited plan for quality reporting by ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) was issued July 1, 2011. If the proposal is finalized later this fall, the time-line could be short. ASCs might need to have quality-reporting systems in place as early as…

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OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 9; September 2011 A circulating nurse reports she called 3 times, asking a technical support assistant to bring a piece of equipment to the OR, but the equipment never arrived. Later, it’s learned the assistant didn’t know what the equipment was and was afraid to…

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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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