If you want to roll out a patient warming protocol that requires your facility to invest time, resources money — and, of course, a change to the status quo — you need to give leadership a compelling reason why...

Reprocessing techs in our hospital who prepare instrument sets for sterilization use a seven-point checklist to ensure trays have been properly assembled. The checklist helps techs ensure instrument sets are loaded properly,...

Our facility's break room is very small, so we've posted a sign that says only six employees at a time can gather there during the pandemic. Numerous staff members are on break at once, though, so we spaced chairs...

The two-inch red circle on the patient's sacrum was unmistakable. A PACU nurse noticed the deep tissue injury during a post-op assessment and called over to pre-op to see if one of her colleagues had documented...

With so many mobile C-arms available from numerous vendors who offer a wide variety of functionality and unique features, picking the right one for your facility can feel overwhelming. Start by collecting substantial feedback from...

When Stamford Health (Conn.) discovered a lack of standardization in its skin antisepsis protocols, the OR leaders at the facility knew they had act. After all, inconsistency is the enemy of an effective prepping process....

There are several ways to ensure your staff is properly trained to handle a malignant hyperthermia emergency. Making them sit through yet another annual in-service or having them read dry educational materials...

Retained foreign objects were 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...

Patients were already a bit nervous when they would arrive for their endoscopies or colonoscopies, and we noticed that sitting in the waiting room watching the news would often stress them out more. We thought, why not get rid...

CMS requires surgery centers to have infection preventionists on staff. Some facilities assign providers to the role simply to fulfil the requirement, but infection prevention has taken on a greater significance during...

Adverse events involving wrong-site, wrong-side and wrong-patient errors are devastating outcomes for surgeons who must live with the mistakes and patients who suffer unnecessary physical scars. These never events persist ...

I remember my first paycheck. It was made on a now-vintage machine, the kind with a hand crank that imprinted the amount: Ten Dollars. That was my starting salary for a week-long summer gig as a kid at my grandfather's...

I've never been so happy to watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve. As soon as it touched down and ended the year we want to forget, I looked forward and focused on setting some self-care goals....

We purchased four rolling desks that are used in our pre-op/PACU area. Staff like the adjustable surface, which lets them sit or stand while working. Each desk has plenty of storage space and a shelf where staff often keep...

We send patients home with blue neck pillows made from memory foam for ergonomic support and personalized handwritten notes from their surgeons. Some patients have lengthy drives awaiting them after surgery,...

Last year was obviously challenging for our surgery center. The staff was physically and emotionally exhausted from working in one of COVID-19's first national hot spots, and sorely needed the annual holiday dinner...

Ambulatory 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 sight of...

Most patients are nervous before surgery, especially now when family members and loved ones are unable to wait with them due to COVID-19 restrictions. That's why we tap into the calming effects of aromatherapy. We hand out...

Patients who undergo surgery on their birthdays definitely deserve special treatment, so we make a point to scan the case schedule every morning to check if a patient is celebrating a life milestone. If they are, we surprise them...

With opioid-sparing protocols firmly positioned as the standard for managing post-op pain, surgeons and anesthesiologists have become masters of multimodal analgesia, perfectly combining a little bit of this with...