This special issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine is dedicated to safety from both the patient and the staff perspectives. It’s a topic that is near and dear to me for many reasons. As a nurse with more 30 years’ experience working at...

Teams in sterile processing departments are often tasked to do more with less, especially when surgeons push to perform more cases than the instrument inventory can handle and reprocessing techs are pressured...

The Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA) recently hosted a webinar during which three guest speakers discussed strategies to maintain individual positivity and enhance the culture of the workgroup. One of...

No industry has been untouched by the Great Resignation, with organizations of all sizes and kinds struggling to retain their best employees — forget finding new talent to fill open positions. The healthcare field has been particularly hard hit...

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...

Change is difficult, especially in health care. Even if an idea sounds easy to implement, getting the effort off the ground and your team on board can be the hardest part. But this didn’t deter Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center...

Top leaders and frontline staff at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta are teaming up to find creative ways to provide the best experience for patients from underrepresented groups and partner with the local communities they serve. “We’re not checking boxes,...”

Nurses are leaving the OR and while there are numerous external factors to blame — industrywide staffing shortages, unrealistic time pressures and a sense of bone-deep burnout from a stubborn, unyielding pandemic...

A complaint about the behavior of a staff member will hopefully never get to the point where it’s heard by a jury, but you should know how to conduct a thorough, professional and well-documented investigation...

Sure, you know the workplace personalities of your staff, but how well do you really know them? Here’s a fun and effective way to find out more about the people you work with. Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center...

One of the ASCs run by the Florida Medical Clinic in the Tampa area has found a way to give its employees much-needed mental rests during busy days of surgery. Leadership bought two large coloring posters — one of a sloth...

Megan Muñoz is finishing up nursing school at Chamberlain University outside of Chicago. She just completed her clinical rotation and will graduate with her BSN in September. Unlike many nursing students, however, Ms. Muñoz is ready to...

Proper ergonomics in the OR is about much more than surgeon and staff comfort. It’s about preventing the types of strain-related injuries that lead to lost work time and poor surgical outcomes. That’s why it’s crucial to...

At the onset of the pandemic, people were memorably advised to sing “Happy Birthday” to themselves to ensure they washed their hands long enough to fully disinfect them. At Dayton (Ohio) Eye Surgery Center, where hand hygiene...

You likely have a natural skill for spotting areas of needed improvement and identifying the changes your facility needs to make. Of course, identifying those areas...

Do no harm guides the culture of safe patient care. At The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., the mantra also extends to protecting the environment. As part of a commitment...

Celebrating National Nurses Month in May highlighted the importance of showing staff how much they’re respected and how much their hard work is appreciated. Ownership at Florida Medical Clinic came up with several ways...

Making sure patients are positioned for surgery with safety in mind is a critical part of any procedure. Issues with positioning can make a straightforward surgery...

I have been a surgical nurse for more than 30 years and a patient numerous times. I’m fully aware, from both sides of the table, of the importance of safe surgical care. There are numerous factors that go into protecting...

It’s common to back-burner an issue that you know needs addressing when a repeat occurrence has not happened for a while. But after a handful of slips, trips and falls incidents last year at our busy community hospital,...