After gynecological procedures such as hysterectomies, surgeons place vaginal packing to stop excessive bleeding. But how are physicians and even patients to know that...

Anxious patients waiting in pre-op bays don't want to see their surgeons wandering around looking for who they're going to be operating on next. To eliminate that...

I’m known for crafting surgical caps made of bright colorful fabric and giving them to my colleagues as small gestures of how much I appreciate working with them....

Anesthesia providers are placing intubation boxes between themselves and the patients they're intubating to serve as a barrier against COVID-19-containing aerosolized...

If your ears begin to feel the pinch from wearing masks all day as you return work during the coronavirus outbreak, reach for a Barrel of Monkeys. It's one of the many...

Even if your facility isn’t on the frontlines of the battle to combat COVID-19, you can still find ways to join in and help. For our temporarily shuttered surgery center, that meant...

Effectively screening patients for COVID-19 is part of pre-op protocols as outpatient facilities across the country slowly begin performing elective procedures again....

The battle for control of the thermostat is a common occurrence in ORs and a source of undo stress for the surgical team. We decided to give final say of the room's...

It’s been nearly two months since the coronavirus began to invade every facet of our day-to-day lives. Heck, it virtually shut down our very livelihood when elective...

A one-word sign on a fleet of fluid waste management carts lets your OR team know which devices have been emptied and cleaned and which ones haven’t. After we...

Reprocessing technicians have one of the most important jobs in an endoscopy center. The complicated and detailed task of cleaning and reprocessing multiple scopes...

When the coronavirus outbreak caused a shortage of personal protective equipment at our hospital, we jumped at the chance to help and developed the prototype for a DIY...

High-volume surgery centers need to take advantage of any operational enhancements they can to stay ahead of the game. That's why we've become proactive about IV starts...

If a survey uncovers an issue that will take a lot of effort (time and money) to solve, always ask the surveyor if there’s an easier way to make the fix and still be...

Healthcare professionals don't do well sitting still. If your staff is faced with too much free time during the COVID-19 crisis, look for non-clinical tasks that need to be done...

Members of our surgical team were particularly grossed out about wearing thyroid shields others had worn during procedures involving intraoperative imaging....

I In our endoscopy department, we make a MESSSS first thing in the morning. The acronym, which we discovered through SGNA, makes it easy to remember the agenda...

In addition to marking the correct surgery site, we always place patients' ID and allergy wristbands on the side thier surgeries will be performed. It's a simple safety check that...

I love to sketch and draw in my free time, so during pre-op clinic visits I ask patients what kind of drawing they want me to make on the bandages I'll place over their scars...

Our PACU staff used to ask that question a lot because we didn't have a designated place to put them. When patients handed over their glasses in pre-op, we'd affix...