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....

Our OR nurses suggested that when we were doing the count, that would be a perfect time to have a conversation about specimens before they go out to pathology....

Surgical facilities track a lot of data — quality measures, patient census, service line revenue and so on. But here’s something that no one regularly tracks: lifetime...

Want to keep things running smoothly all day? Then get off to a fast start with your first-time starts. Here's how we did it:...

Whether you're a new OR leader still settling into your role or you've been herding surgeons for years and have the battle scars to prove it, one thing is certain:...

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...

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...

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...

Study Finds Sedation Method Doesn't Affect Adenoma Detection Rate; No significant difference between moderate or deep sedation in colonoscopy detection rates.

Negligence Suit: Reckless Intraoperative Neuromonitoring During Spinal Surgery Led to Deadly Catastrophic Hypoxic Brain Injury; $4.2M settlement reached in suit that alleged physiatrist behind wheel and on phone instead of neuromonitoring patient's b

Class Action: 600 Ex-employees Sue Laser Spine Institute for 2 Months of Pay and Benefits; the chain of surgery centers closed without warning - now some stunned workers are seeking restitution.