Putting patients in steep Trendelenburg is arguably one of the most challenging positioning tasks your OR staff faces. With the number of robotic urologic and...

MYTH #1: A post-op fever is indicative of MH FACT: Many clinicians worry that MH may begin in the postoperative period with a fever...

Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia is a preventable complication that can have disastrous consequences. A patient whose temperature dips below 36 C will react to...

When the Joint Commission looked at the most commonly reported sentinel events from ambulatory care organizations in 2018 and the first half of 2019, wrong-site...

CMS Issues Updated Reopening Recommendations; The guidance aims to ensure elective surgeries continue to resume safely

The patient came in for a cystoscopy, a common outpatient procedure that only requires a person to be on the table for about 25 minutes. But the procedure does...

At the heart of electrosurgery safety is a firm understanding of how the technology works and the core principles driving its use. A base knowledge of the physics behind...

Counts Aren't Always Correct; Barcode scanning and RFID detection help to make sure no sponge is left behind.

It's not that difficult to learn from your mistakes. All it takes is gathering your nurses and surgical techs for a half-hour meeting every few months to talk about errors...

How Do You Enhance Patient Safety? Readers reveal the solutions they use to augment the efforts of their protective-minded surgical teams.

Positioned for Change; Reviewing and revamping your positioning protocols will protect patients from harm and give surgeons the access they need to perform successful surgery.

Are You Applying Skin Preps Properly? Address common reasons for noncompliance to reduce the risk of surgical site infections.

To prevent the next patient from getting hooked on opioids, let’s first consider what helped cause the national epidemic to spiral out of control. It wasn’t surgeons passing...

Like many Americans, my life has been radically altered by the opioid crisis. More than a decade ago, a family member was prescribed 50 pills of OxyContin for a relatively...

Pressure Ulcers: Surgery's Sore Subject; Your OR team can prevent pressure injuries by following these 5 guidelines.

Safety: Simulate Emergencies in Bedside Mock Drills; Let staff practice their response to urgent situations before they occur

It should come as no surprise that most outpatient facilities warm their surgical patients. After all, there's an ever-growing mountain of evidence that says warming...

A Better Way to Care for Autistic Patients; This protocol makes care easier on and better for patients, families and providers.

Electrosurgical injuries are estimated to occur in 1 to 2 out of every 1,000 laparoscopic procedures. That doesn't seem like many, but when you consider about 2 million...

Is Your Facility Disability Friendly? Take steps to ensure disabled patients and staff have comfortable access to every room.