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...

Long before I was a tireless travel nurse and an acid-tongued humor columnist, I was a young brat taking in a crazy world and making memories that would serve as fodder for countless columns and yarns in the years that followed....

A mere four procedures were added to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) ASC-approved list for 2023, a decision met with disappointment and frustration by advocates for ambulatory surgery centers across the U.S....

What is your leadership style? That question has been posed to me virtually every time I interviewed for a leadership position, and it’s a question I’ve often asked candidates myself. I no longer ask the leadership-style question. It simply doesn’t get to...

I don’t think there has ever been a time in modern history when we knew what the biggest news story of the next five years was going to be preemptively. That’s a claim made by Morgan Housel, author of “The Psychology of Money.” Mr. Housel...

At Seven Hills ASC & Cath Lab in Henderson, Nev., nurses held a roundtable discussion to determine specific items that would be helpful in the case of an evacuation or emergency event....

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...

At Eye 35, a busy ASC in Schertz, Texas, the staff strives to keep their patients calm and any excess paperwork to a minimum. “Some medical records such as medical history and medication reconciliation for the patient’s next surgery are held until their next visit....

Most facilities communicate clearly with patients about what they are likely to experience perioperatively when receiving nerve blocks, but what happens when they return to their homes after discharge?...

The patient care coordinators at Urology Health Surgery Center in Fort Washington, Pa., try to make sure their patients leave with smiles on their faces. To do this, they created a wall of laughs that is covered in silly “dad jokes” to...

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....

Maintaining a fleet of drills, saws and reamers that keeps an entire practice of orthopedic surgeons happy is as much an art as a science. Many of these critical tools are generally agreed upon by all staff based on very objective criteria....

Many patients suffer from both cataracts and glaucoma, so why not address both conditions during the same surgery? While such an efficient option seems like a no-brainer, in reality it’s not quite that simple....

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....

Great Ideas for Your OR

Same-day shoulder replacements are very much in their infancy, but the migration from inpatient hospitals to ambulatory ORs is moving fast. In fact, the rate at which shoulder replacements are increasing is higher than...

Sandra Lindsay, RN, made it clear to anyone who would listen that she wanted to be first in line to receive the coronavirus vaccine. She was emotionally exhausted from witnessing the pain and suffering of...

What's wrong with our healthcare system? That's the question I couldn't stop asking myself after an Air Force deployment to Afghanistan that ended in 2008. I had been thinking...

Accreditation is more than a simple stamp of approval. Sure, accredited facilities meet nationally recognized quality measures, implement evidence-based clinical practices...