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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

We use a free game app (kahoot.com) to turn ho-hum staff meetings into fun, interactive learning sessions. It's easy to input a series of multiple choice or true-false...

Patient satisfaction surveys and comments from providers trying to communicate with patients indicated that the ambient noise in our small pre/post-operative area was...

When surveyors come knocking, the worst thing you can do is keep them waiting while you scramble around searching to find the documents they asked to see. That's why...

Looking for a better way to organize your inventory of frozen tissue grafts? To improve efficiency when preparing for a case, we developed a system that involves placing...

Over the past few years, a number of employees who work in our health system's outpatient surgery center have become new moms. When they returned...

With all the pressure central sterile staff are under to keep cases flowing through high-volume facilities, the last thing you want to do is give them an excuse to avoid...

The sterile processing department is not an easy place to work. If you want to make sure new sterile processing techs mesh well with the current team and...

Humidity levels in your ORs should be between 30% and 60%, a range that can be difficult to maintain. That's why I had our HVAC company install a computer program...

Looking for a fun and effective way to weigh less? Hold your own "Biggest Loser" competition and award the staff members who shed the most pounds....

The disposable plastic bags we used to use to transport flexible cystoscopes to and from the sterile processing department cost $1.80 each. Each of our four...

Our facility knew the benefits of administering IV acetaminophen preoperatively to reduce post-op pain, but it was always in short supply or cost prohibitive....