Discharge can be a confusing time for patients and their family members. The after-effects of anesthesia cause some amnesia, and the information and directives about post-op care are given when family members might be...

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols involve standardized care pathways that limit post-op pain with minimal use of opioids. Patients who enter the pathways...

The pandemic has caused us all to re-examine our infection prevention strategies, including those related to personal protective equipment (PPE). Staff and physicians who properly wear PPE protect themselves...

Every January, managers from the OR, anesthesia and central sterile gather to review our hospitals' policies and procedures in order to make needed changes. Because representatives from many different disciplines...

We created a custom handoff form that's placed on top of each patient's chart to keep staff abreast of pertinent information that's not typically part of their medical record. In addition to noting case start and stop times...

As the president of a full-service anesthesia group, my number one goal has always been to protect my staff and our patients. That priority has certainly been put to the test...

Retained foreign objects was the most frequently reported adverse event between 2015 and 2017, according to The Joint Commission. We decided to tackle this issue head on by developing a custom count board...

Regional anesthesia provides potent perioperative pain control, reduces the risks of problematic complications and decreases the need for unnecessary opioid prescriptions....

How did your widely used scale come to be? I met Donna Wong, the late co-author of the scale, in 1981. We shared a concern about...

The persistent pain above her ribcage made sleeping at night nearly impossible. "My primary care physician dismissed it as a muscular injury that would correct itself,..."

The jury's been in on double-gloving for quite some time now. Wearing two layers of protection is an easy, cost-saving and low-tech way to reduce risks of cross-contamination...

Abulatory surgical facilities have pivoted quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shown clinical teams are able to make a number of changes in short order. In this new world of "must-dos," though, we can't lose...

My career as a nurse anesthetist recently began at two plastic surgery centers, where I knew I'd face significant challenges in managing PONV. Rates of the relatively common...

Great ideas for your OR

Early this year, one of the first total hip replacements paid for by Medicare was performed on a woman in her late 80s at our outpatient surgery center. This was only possible because the Centers for Medicare...

It's important to keep everyone on your staff engaged and connected, and fun group activities can help create a sense of community among the team. Try inviting members of your perioperative department to submit unique...

Though often considered more of a niche procedure, replacing only the diseased part of the knee offers advantages to the right patient, including a faster recovery and higher satisfaction with the overall results, says...

Success in cataract surgery is often defined by excellent outcomes achieved quickly and safely. SightTrust Eye Institute in Sunrise, Fla., has that process down to an exact science....

Surgical incisions create openings and opportunities for the trillions of bacterial cells that live inside of the body, so efforts to prevent post-op infections shouldn't end until...

A cardiac procedure is on the schedule and there are eight different-sized stents — at $80 a pop — that could be used. Your surgical team opens all eight, even though seven will likely be thrown away. That's $560 worth...