Keeping fluid off the floors of ORs is obviously a critical safety issue. Staff injuries from slips, trips and falls are among the top culprits causing lost workdays that often result...

Surgery is currently dominated by two forms of turnover: The turnover of breaking down and setting up for the next case and that of OR personnel jumping ship or retiring. This combination of fast-paced scheduling and increasingly...

Not long after we opened the doors to our small outpatient center in 2004, we experienced our first sharps injury. That was just the wake-up call we needed to ensure the event was a one-off mistake and not an unfortunate...

When Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law last year a measure that required hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to eliminate surgical smoke, it was a big win for the nurses...

This special issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine is dedicated to safety from both the patient and the staff perspectives. It’s a topic that is near and dear to me for many reasons. As a nurse with more 30 years’ experience working at...

Monkeypox continues to pose a threat since an outbreak of cases began in the U.S. earlier this year. As of Sept. 29, the CDC reported 26,631 confirmed cases...

Facilities with the foresight to invest in the blending of surgeon skill and technological advancements are shaping the future of surgery. MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Wash., added...

A little more than six years ago, Beki Kazanofski, MSN, RN, CNOR, NE-BC, was in the OR when a needle caught the very tip of her glove. “Thank god I was double-gloved, and I had that extra layer of protection,...

Surgical teams take great care in cleaning surfaces, prepping the patient’s skin and making sure barrier protection is in place to reduce the risks of surgical site infections (SSIs). That might not be enough to address what's wafting in the air...

At the heart of Knoxville (Tenn.) Orthopaedic Surgery Center’s full-circle approach to top-quality patient care is a very simple philosophy: Take care of those who take care of the patients. “I feel like it’s my ultimate responsibility...

Recently, Edward Oates, MD, a trauma and orthopedic surgeon in Germany, posted a question to #orthotwitter: “How do you avoid cuts to your distal interphalangeal joints when using suture thread?” After many providers replied...

A complaint about the behavior of a staff member will hopefully never get to the point where it’s heard by a jury, but you should know how to conduct a thorough, professional and well-documented investigation...

One of the ASCs run by the Florida Medical Clinic in the Tampa area has found a way to give its employees much-needed mental rests during busy days of surgery. Leadership bought two large coloring posters — one of a sloth...

Surgeons are often compared to elite competitive athletes, but perhaps professional dancer is more appropriate — at least when it comes understanding the ergonomic and musculoskeletal issues physicians face throughout their careers....

My hospital’s sterile processing department is responsible for turning around 1,500 instrument trays a day. Our surgeons specialize in a variety of orthopedic procedures, including total joints and spine, so our reprocessing techs...

The news cycle is filled with troubling reports of gun violence. Recently, in the span of just three weeks, mass shootings occurred at a supermarket in Buffalo, an elementary school...

In the event of an emergency, you and your staff won’t have a lot of time to act, but you can help increase the chances of effective evacuation by posting the details of your facility-specific route in high-traffic areas. Hunterdon Center...

Proper ergonomics in the OR is about much more than surgeon and staff comfort. It’s about preventing the types of strain-related injuries that lead to lost work time and poor surgical outcomes. That’s why it’s crucial to...

The day was like any other to the physicians and staff who bustled about the Warren Clinic, the office space of an orthopedic medical group on the campus of...

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses estimates that a sharps injury occurs during as many as 15% of surgeries. It also found that about 64% of these injuries...