Each year, OAM Surgery Center at MidTowne in Grand Rapids, Mich., holds an education day for staff to ensure they are compliant with CMS and AAAHC requirements. If you’re expecting boring stories of clinicians sitting in classrooms watching dry...

Major change doesn’t happen overnight — especially in the world of surgery. Little by little the trends of today mold and shape the industry of tomorrow. For facility leaders, keeping up with these changes is an absolute imperative....

It's been more than a year since COVID-19 heightened the importance of following proper infection prevention protocols. Are you curious to see if your staff's knowledge...

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) doesn't often occur, but when it does the mortality rate is extremely high if the condition is not treated soon after symptoms appear. This quiz can help you determine if your staff is ready to immediately jump into action...

You’ve had a chaotic morning. The first patient of the day canceled their procedure and your nurse navigator called in sick, throwing your facility’s entire schedule off track....

Sound electrosurgical safety practices often come down to preventing complacency from setting in among the staff who use these high-powered devices to cut and coagulate tissue during countless surgical procedures.

The effects of a single retained surgical item (RSI) are often catastrophic to the unfortunate patients who fall victim to these sentinel events. As for the facilities who commit these never-events, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority...

There’s no shortage of compelling data and research on exactly what it takes to prevent pressure injuries. The trick is finding practical ways to put that evidence into...

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...

Milton Lee (Chip) Routt Jr., MD, has always preferred to put pen to bedsheet. He has been drawing detailed illustrations of anatomy to facilitate his teachings to residents for decades. “The bedsheets of pre-op beds are great canvases...

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,...

There are many steps to manage in the endoscope reprocessing process and missing or rushing through just one can lead to improper high-level disinfection and patient harm. “Endoscopes are very complex and intricate medical devices...

In a world turned upside-down by COVID and dizzying rates of staff turnover, live, team-based training on how to quickly respond to an instance of the rare but potentially fatal phenomenon of malignant hyperthermia (MH) is...

Patient safety should be top of mind at all times, even when high-volume days and high-pressure situations threaten to distract the clinical team from taking the necessary steps to reduce the risk factors that can lead to adverse events....

Surgeons are often compared to elite competitive athletes, but perhaps professional dancer is more appropriate — at least when it comes understanding the ergonomic and musculoskeletal issues physicians face throughout their careers....

Pressure injury prevention isn’t just about using the right positioning aids. It’s an ever-continuing process of monitoring, documentation, education, investigation, risk assessment and process improvement. A dedicated, interdisciplinary team...

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are among the most common and costly of all healthcare complications, yet as many as half are considered preventable. While costs of treating SSIs vary widely based on the degree of infection...

It can be difficult to diagnose the signs and symptoms of postoperative delirium in patients. “We knew we had to educate our staff about the condition, but felt that presenting the information with a PowerPoint presentation...

The news cycle is filled with troubling reports of gun violence. Recently, in the span of just three weeks, mass shootings occurred at a supermarket in Buffalo, an elementary school...

The sudden and significant impact of the pandemic put infection preventionists at the forefront of efforts to keep staff and patients safe. Their knowledge and guidance...