April 2025

I love my job. I have always enjoyed educating new ASC leaders and watching them grow professionally....

Welcome to A Day in the Life of an Administrator, our online column, where we sat down with Scott Smallwood, RN, clinical director for Bend (Ore.) Surgery Center....

Ambulatory surgery centers face intense scrutiny each year as they endure rigorous inspections to ensure they are providing top-tier patient care and safety....

Michelle King, MT(ASCP), MPH, CIC, LTC-CIP, underwent a major surgical event after the birth of her second child....

Even though outpatient shoulder replacements were approved years after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave total knees and hips the nod, it’s still a...

Achieving optimal and timely recoveries for total joints patients isn’t easy....

Have you checked on the quality of the water that’s coming into and moving around your facility, particularly the water that your sterile processing department (SPD) uses...

The person at ASCs charged with overseeing practices to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) usually has another role (or three), so it’s crucial for centers to count on the latest...

Missing instruments. Wrong instruments. Contaminated instruments. Each creates a losing proposition for surgery, from costly delays to frustrated OR staff and surgeons to...

As ASC administrators, we feel the heaviness of the many hats we wear. Many of us take on multiple crucial roles within our surgery centers – many of which staff, surgeons...

Ann M. Cook, BHA, RN, CASC, is director of nursing at The Center for Surgical Care in Florence, Ky., which opened way back in 1988. Even though her center is 37 years old...

One weekend each month, all the rooms at Knoxville (Tenn.) Orthopaedic Center are treated with liquid and vaporized isopropyl alcohol, a protocol that serves as an...

Cord management is a recurring problem for many nurses when they bring patients into the OR. Sometimes the best solutions for these types of nagging issues come...

When we approached Santa Cruz (Calif.) Surgery Center CEO/Administrator Lisa Cooper about a video the ASC produced and posted on LinkedIn about postoperative pain...

Every time I talk with a surgical leader about their past survey experiences, I’m instantly transported back to the dinner table of my childhood home where my parents, both...

Finding your voice as a new nurse in the operating room can be terrifying. It’s challenging to navigate all the different personalities, and it’s not something nursing...

The complexity of the spine includes many moving parts that can make it challenging to pinpoint a patient’s pain....

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Ambulatory Surgery Center Quality Reporting Program (ASCQR) is complex, even for experienced professionals in ASC...

U.S. News & World Report just released its 2025 Best Ambulatory Surgery Center ratings, the second annual edition of an ASC ratings initiative that is based on risk-adjusted...

When I took the job as clinical director of an ASC, I imagined myself as a visionary leader who ensured patients and staff would thrive in a perfectly coordinated dance of...