Running a surgical facility during the pandemic requires wearing many hats while keeping several balls in the air and numerous plates spinning. Norma Bacon, administrator at the New England Surgery Center...

Getting back up and running and returning to a sense of normalcy are phrases that have been thrown around since COVID-19 hit. As elective procedures such as colonoscopies began to ramp back up after last year's nationwide...

OMS's Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center final rule, which took effect on Jan. 1, substantially blurs the lines between inpatient and outpatient surgical care, as well as...

The events of 2020 have changed our nation forever. The struggles and stresses of the past year will also fuel change within surgery, which is poised to become safer,...

If you want to reduce foot traffic in operating rooms — traffic that can lead to increased surgical site infections, distractions, airflow disturbances and decreased efficiency — slide a Do Not Enter sign in laminated holders...

Like most surgical leaders, you're probably eager to put 2020 in the rearview mirror and start fresh with next year's initiatives and goals. The problem is, so many surgical staffs...

A few months ago, I operated on a patient with severe nasal polyps —a condition that caused significant discomfort and breathing issues. These polyps were recurrent from...

No surgeon wakes up in the morning with the intention of performing a wrong-site surgery and yet these types of never events continue to happen, even with protocols...

You're on mute." Yeah, I'm that guy on Microsoft Teams. You'd think that after nine months of remote meetings I'd remember to toggle on my mic when it's my turn to speak....

Healthcare professionals are expected to practice cultural humility and provide patient-centered care to diverse individuals who have different cultural backgrounds than their...

To keep your entire staff abreast of the ever-changing guidelines and directives related to COVID-19, make sure the latest information is easily accessible to everyone. When the coronavirus started spreading quickly,...

I'm a big proponent of rigid sterilization containers for numerous reasons. They're reusable and therefore eco-friendly, they protect your instruments from damage much better than blue wrap does and many models...

You can use ultrasound to identify landmarks and assist in the placement of an epidural, but it does not guarantee the catheter will end up in the epidural space. That's why loss-of-resistance training for the gold standard...

To help our surgeons find their patients quickly and easily in recovery, we hung a series of color-coded flags on the wall outside each bay. The series of flags are screwed into the wall, allowing us to flip one out as needed....

Many surgical professionals learn best by doing. If you bombard them with information about what to do in the event of a malignant hyperthermia (MH) emergency, but don't...

Buying commonly used medications in premixed, pre-labeled and prefilled syringes should be a no-brainer, right? You'd think so, but ready-to-use syringes are more...

At long last, the end of 2020 is in sight. Good riddance. I haven't been this excited for the start of a new year since Y2K. Back in October, I honestly considered covering my...

Monthly one-on-one talks with each of my staff members gives them the chance to speak about any issues they have and talk openly about whatever subject they choose to discuss. The meetings are brief check-ins...

Hand hygiene has always been important, but COVID-19 has caused us all to refocus on doing it right. To make sure our staff is keeping up with this important task, we perform a fun exercise with Glo Germ, a lotion that glows...

There's a lot riding on turning over operating rooms quickly between cases. It ensures high-volume surgeons start their surgeries on time, patients pass through pre-op...