My hospital’s sterile processing department is responsible for turning around 1,500 instrument trays a day, and we take every measure possible to ensure...

With the surge in joint replacements and other orthopedic surgeries moving to ambulatory care, ASCs also face a higher risk for surgical site infections (SSIs)....

The $1.7 trillion federal spending package passed by the lame-duck Congress last month includes a 2% reduction in physicians’ pay for Medicare cases, which experts in the same-day surgical industry say will have multiple immediate negative...

From the time a patient schedules their surgery at your facility to the time they leave the PACU to head home, they’re quietly grading your every move....

There’s plenty of compelling big-picture data out there to support the need for meticulous and consistent point-of-use instrument care. A 2020 study in BMJ Quality & Safety is a great example....

The short- and long-term impact of COVID-19 will surely include a radical change in how surface disinfection is practiced and enforced. "All of my surgical facilities are asking...

Understanding the Dangers of Perioperative Hypothermia; The preventable condition increases risks of post-op infection, serious complications and longer recovery times.

Test your staff’s knowledge on instrument cleaning, sharps safety, wound care and other ways to keep patients and staff safe.

Avoiding dangerous and preventable sharps injuries often comes down to debunking the common myths about these issues. Setting the record straight allows facilities to put proven processes and protocols in place....

Keeping fluid off the floors of ORs is obviously a critical safety issue. Staff injuries from slips, trips and falls are among the top culprits causing lost workdays that often result...

Not long after we opened the doors to our small outpatient center in 2004, we experienced our first sharps injury. That was just the wake-up call we needed to ensure the event was a one-off mistake and not an unfortunate...

Monkeypox continues to pose a threat since an outbreak of cases began in the U.S. earlier this year. As of Sept. 29, the CDC reported 26,631 confirmed cases...

Our endoscopy center opened in December 2019, a few months before COVID-19 hit. My head was spinning not only from trying to run a brand new facility, but from rapidly changing infection prevention protocols...

A little more than six years ago, Beki Kazanofski, MSN, RN, CNOR, NE-BC, was in the OR when a needle caught the very tip of her glove. “Thank god I was double-gloved, and I had that extra layer of protection,...

Your surgical team can instruct patients to bathe with antimicrobial soap before surgery and apply skin prep around the surgical site before incisions are made and that still might not be enough...

Ensuring that reprocessed endoscopes are completely dry during storage remains an important patient safety topic in the world of endoscopy. Residual moisture in and around endoscopes promotes the growth...

In March, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) updated ANSI/AAMI ST91:2021, its standard for the cleaning and storing of flexible endoscopes. The new guidance document — which addresses...

Any patient arriving on the day of their surgery is going to be anxious. That anxiety will only grow, and their satisfaction will decline, if their surgery is delayed because of inefficient room turnover times. Getting ORs ready for the next case...

Surgical teams take great care in cleaning surfaces, prepping the patient’s skin and making sure barrier protection is in place to reduce the risks of surgical site infections (SSIs). That might not be enough to address what's wafting in the air...

The surgical services team at Ascension St. Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood, Ind., is well into year three without a single surgical site infection (SSI). That impressive run has earned its staff the 2022 OR Excellence Award for Infection Prevention....