The Constant Quest for Zero - Staff & Patient Safety - October, 2015

A better way to eliminate retained surgical items. Accounting, not counting, will ensure no sponges are left behind.

Do you have a culture of safety? Experts weigh in on why changing the environment of your OR is difficult, but essential.

MH drills can be a real life saver. My son is alive today because the surgical team did everything right.

Your primer on plasma cutting and coagulation devices. These little 'lightsabers' let your surgeons gently slice and seal tissue.

Clear cut. Are you marking the surgical site right? Our survey shows room for improvement.

Safety: Shhh! surgery in progress. Excessive noise distracts the OR team from patient care.

6 things MH experts want you to know. The MHAUS hotline medical director answers your most pressing questions.

Don't put phones before patients. Surgical safety group promotes cautious perioperative use of electronic gadgets.

Safety: Run down fire risk before every case. Fires are preventable if the OR team is aware of the risks.

Looking to accessorize your table? Today's newest patient positioning attachments add versatility to any surface.

Avoid these 5 patient positioning disasters. From pressure ulcers to vision loss, don't let positioning problems happen on your watch.

Medication safety pop quiz. Are you complying with best practices in medication safety?

A black box in every OR. Surgery can take a lesson from aviation, says the surgeon who invented a device that records every step of surgery.

Safety: Enhance your fire safety protocols. Address specific ignition risks during pre-op time outs.

6 patient safety enhancers. Give your staff the tools they need to prevent harm.

Surgeons' Lounge: Relative humidity levels. Dangers of letting OR humidity dip below 30%

Simulated saline puts patients at risk. A training product somehow ended up on supply shelves?

Expert Q&A: wrong-site surgery. Why years of time outs and surgical site marking haven't eradicated this never event.

Safety: The ABC's of electrosurgery. A pop quiz to test your staff's knowledge.