They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I'd rather sleep a few minutes longer than make bacon and eggs or eat cereal that changes the color of...

If you've invested in robots, you might as well let everyone know that your facility offers the most advanced surgical technology. Our hospital, Pascack Valley Medical...

Dirty instruments, broken instruments, missing instruments. In an ideal world, we'd never have to worry about the sterile processing department (SPD) causing...

If you use IV start kits, you might be wasting money with every catheter you place. Our IV start kits contained a number of items we never used, including povidone-iodine...

It's easy to blame this case of wrong-person surgery on the pathologist who admittedly mixed up biopsy slides, but we're still left to wonder what if anything the OR team...

Roughly 70% of retained surgical items are sponges, and roughly 80% of retained sponges occur with what staff believe is a correct count. No wonder OR managers...

The SafeHaven automated hand hygiene monitoring system helps you monitor, measure and manage compliance. Every time a staff member performs an alcohol...

When I noticed patients who visited our hospital's emergency department carried their personal belongings home in single-use plastic bags, I knew there had to be...

To grasp the importance of preventing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in joint replacement patients, consider what happens if the bacteria...

Adding new and innovative procedures is a proven way to increase your revenue, attract new patients and surgeons, and set yourself apart from the competition....

Today's modern surgeons are directors and executive producers of the motion picture institutes that are today's sleek ORs, routing video from and to any flat-panel,...

We're a couple months into our unlikely — and unprecedented — partnership in which 3 rival hospitals within a 50-mile radius own and use the same ambulatory surgery...

Jennifer Pennock is AORN's senior manager of government affairs, though lately a better title for her might be senior manager of smoke evacuation legislation efforts....

At the end of pre-op clinic appointments, I hand patients a business card that includes my personal email address and request that a family member send me a message...

Dedicated regional block nurses are invaluable when it comes to preparing patients for blocks, administering catheters and staying on schedule. But leadership doesn't always...

You've come to the right place if your surgeons and OR staff aren't happy with the gloves they're using, or if you're just looking for a better glove or a better deal. Not only...

How difficult is it to prep the skin for surgery? You pick an antiseptic agent and paint it on in concentric circles, beginning at the incision site and working outward,...

You can manually clean an endoscope until it shines and examine every millimeter of its insertion tube for pinhole leaks, but none of that matters if fluid remains in the scope's...

Ambulatory surgery center payment rates as a percentage of the hospital outpatient department rates have steadily declined over the years. In 2003, procedures...

We're all probably a little numb to medication safety. We get it. It's super important. We live the life. It's easy to become complacent until we have a problem....