Before critical procedures like our high-volume thyroidectomies, we gather a multidisciplinary team to play a game of "What Could Go Wrong?" in which we discuss...

Two words that strike fear in the heart of every OR manager: open time. That, of course, is when your ORs sit silent and empty while it's standing-room only in the staff...

There were boxes of suture hiding everywhere at AdventHealth Surgery Center Lenexa (Kan.), some opened and some outdated, some stored on the big suture cart...

The winner of this year's OR Excellence Award for Patient Satisfaction goes to great lengths to get patients to fill out their post-op surveys and even greater lengths to...

We've shaved some precious minutes off our turnover times by creating a "runner" position to help the RN, surgical tech and the 1 to 2 instrument techs we staff for each...

Lasers are powering numerous procedures at eye surgery centers — cataracts, glaucoma, astigmatism, cornea and retina among them — with more on the way....

The patient is prepped and draped, and I'm seated to begin my charting. Only then do I realize that I've forgotten to record the serial number of the SCD box. I'd have to hop...

However wonderful it might (or might not) be for healthcare pricing to be transparent, what does it matter if you have no clear understanding of related costing and other...

The OR team at Lakeside Surgery Center in Omaha, Neb., works hard to manage patients’ post-op pain with an eye toward the addiction epidemic. “Our nation is in...

We're thrilled to introduce this year's OR Excellence Award Winners, a group of surgical leaders who represent facilities excelling at performing safe, environmentally friendly...

From blue wrap to plastic film to white cardboard, ORs produce millions of mounds and millions of pounds of waste per year. Rather than cart it away to landfills,...

Has your OR staff lost its way when it comes to pretreating instruments at the point of use before sending them out for reprocessing? Have they never even known the way?...

What's the best way to keep your sterilized instruments free of contaminants and protect them from damage during storage and transport? Most of our clients use...

Benjamin Franklin was right: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Pretty sure Mr. Franklin wasn’t talking about caring for surgical instruments, but we do...

It sounds almost too good to be true: a credit card without interest for medical expenses. But if you're losing out on potential patients who can't afford skyrocketing...

We hang an image of the American flag on the OR door to alert the surgical team that the patient is a combat veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder...

It’s one thing to log and track laboratory specimens and post their results in the patient’s chart. But that doesn’t confirm that the ordering healthcare provider read...

Children at Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter in Wilmington, Del., were so stressed saying goodbye to their parents before heading to the operating room for dental...

My orthopedic patients are often groggy from the effects of anesthesia when I meet with them minutes after surgery to let them know how the procedure went and what...

Certain procedures cause anxiety for patients. That’s especially true at my facility, where we’re treating children. When we received a $13,000 grant for 3 virtual reality...