Accreditation is a crucial element of a successful ASC. It positions a new facility to receive Medicare funding in months, compared to potentially waiting for a year or more to receive certification from your...

It has happened to me throughout my entire career. I’d walk into a different department to see a patient before surgery and be mistaken for a housekeeper, transporter or dietary staff member....

When a number I didn’t recognize lit up my phone’s screen and interrupted the classic Stone Temple Pilots Unplugged concert that had been getting me through yet another dreary November day...

Amy Avila, RN, CCRN, CSC, has a simple suggestion that can help perioperative healthcare workers decompress: Get a little artistic, even if you’re not a natural....

Want a simple way to make sure your staff recycles more? Make sure cans are easily accessible and visible. Knoxville (Tenn.) Orthopaedic Surgery Center utilizes recycling trash cans in its staff lounges...

If your staff always finds itself in need of an open outlet that never seems to exist, here’s a simple fix: Power strips that can be mounted to IV poles, mobile carts and modular workstations...

The staff at Seven Hills ASC & Cath Lab in Henderson, Nev., developed a simple yet effective way to remind their catheter lab patients who...

In 2021, more than 4,000 cases were performed in the ORs at WellSpan Health Apple Hill Surgical Center in York, Pa., and the facility’s nurses and OR assistants pulled numerous individual supplies...

Patients undergoing even short surgical procedures can have inadvertent changes in body temperature that can cause hypothermia....

Like many high-volume ASCs emerging from the pandemic’s depths, Ohio Gastroenterology Group had a phone call problem … as in, way more than its staff and physicians could handle....

Infection prevention procedures have always been a key focus during on-site inspections, and their importance has only intensified since the pandemic began in 2020. Here’s what surveyors will be looking for...

Airway management is one of the most important skills any anesthesia provider should master for one very good reason: Complications from difficult airways and poor management of those airways, though rare, can be life-threatening....

Flexible endoscope care is a complex, multilayered process rife with opportunities for errors and missed steps....

When RaDonda Vaught was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide for a fatal medication error that she self-reported, the ruling sent shockwaves across the medical community and left nurses fearful the criminalization of medical mistakes could...

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, surgical leaders and their teams have dealt with unprecedented levels of stress, as well as exceedingly volatile staffing situations....

Between the effects of a once-in-a-generation pandemic, increased patient demand and an aging population that will soon exceed the number of nurses available, ambulatory facility leaders everywhere are...

Leaders of outpatient surgery centers are forever asked to do more with less, but 2022 was an extreme version of that dynamic for many. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued its excruciating journey to...

In a world where frontline healthcare workers are being challenged more than ever before, it can be tough to convince your nurses and techs to step up and fill leadership roles in the OR and throughout your outpatient surgery facility....

For the past decade, I’ve written my column on resolutions I planned to make in the New Year, the many well-intentioned goals I can never seem to keep. But this year I thought I’d try something different....

My hospital’s sterile processing department is responsible for turning around 1,500 instrument trays a day, and we take every measure possible to ensure...