Infection prevention procedures have always been a key focus during on-site inspections, and their importance has only intensified since the pandemic began in 2020. Here’s what surveyors will be looking for...

Airway management is one of the most important skills any anesthesia provider should master for one very good reason: Complications from difficult airways and poor management of those airways, though rare, can be life-threatening....

Flexible endoscope care is a complex, multilayered process rife with opportunities for errors and missed steps....

When RaDonda Vaught was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide for a fatal medication error that she self-reported, the ruling sent shockwaves across the medical community and left nurses fearful the criminalization of medical mistakes could...

As freestanding surgery centers welcome an ever-growing number of hopeful total joints patients, core components of successful programs have enabled various surgery centers to capitalize on the surge.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, surgical leaders and their teams have dealt with unprecedented levels of stress, as well as exceedingly volatile staffing situations....

Between the effects of a once-in-a-generation pandemic, increased patient demand and an aging population that will soon exceed the number of nurses available, ambulatory facility leaders everywhere are...

Leaders of outpatient surgery centers are forever asked to do more with less, but 2022 was an extreme version of that dynamic for many. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued its excruciating journey to...

In a world where frontline healthcare workers are being challenged more than ever before, it can be tough to convince your nurses and techs to step up and fill leadership roles in the OR and throughout your outpatient surgery facility....

For the past decade, I’ve written my column on resolutions I planned to make in the New Year, the many well-intentioned goals I can never seem to keep. But this year I thought I’d try something different....

My hospital’s sterile processing department is responsible for turning around 1,500 instrument trays a day, and we take every measure possible to ensure...

Building a $50 million new construction project without a major health system as a partner is no easy trick, but that’s just what two western Wisconsin practices did....

Amy Avila, RN, CCRN, CSC, has always loved to draw, but the student registered nurse anesthetist didn’t think to link her passion to her profession until she saw a Facebook post...

When the clock struck midnight in 2000 and I convinced myself that Y2K wouldn’t actually cripple the very fabric of our society, I promised myself I’d dunk a basketball on a regulation hoop by year’s end....

Packed OR schedules and staffing shortages conspired to cancel Kadlec Regional Medical Center’s annual skills fair, which was scheduled to take place in its simulation lab near its main campus in Richland, Wash...

When patients are recovering from intense surgeries at home and something unexpected or concerning occurs, they need to know whether what they’re experiencing is a common-but-alarming natural byproduct of their surgical journey...

After much work, communication and trial and error, the staff at Eye 35 ASC in Schertz, Texas, have fine-tuned and standardized their surgical packs to match their exact needs....

When OrthoArizona recently decided to hold a food drive, it pulled out all the stops. Rather than limiting the effort to one facility helping a single community, it placed donation boxes at each of its more than two dozen locations in...

How do you get kids comfortable with the idea of going under the knife? You give them a glimpse into the operating room, making sure there are plenty of teddy bears to go around....

Up until a few years ago, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center didn’t have a standard surgical smoke evacuation program in place. While having such a program may seem like a no-brainer for one of the nation’s leading cancer centers...